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Saving farmland and other open space lands from development makes environmental
and economic sense.
Add up the "hidden costs" of sprawl — the additional schools, roads,
and fire, police, and trash services needed by new residents. You may be
surprised to learn that, in many cases, residential development costs you
— the taxpayer — more than buying the land and keeping it as
open space.
The example below demonstrates that preserving a hypothetical farm in
central Bucks County could save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars
per year. The approach used in the example was devised by Mike Frank of
Heritage Conservancy and looks only at increased school taxes due to new
development.
The analysis is as follows:
Honey Hill Farm is for sale. This 100-acre farm is located in an
area of the municipality zoned for one house per acre. If the farm is
sold to a developer, it is reasonable to expect that 85 new homes might
be constructed (reserving some land for streets and steep slopes).
Assuming there are 0.83 public school students per home (using 1997
estimates from the Central Bucks County School District), the new development
would add 70.55 new public school students. (85 x 0.83 = 70.55)
If it costs $8,615/year to educate a public school student (again
using 1997 figures from the Central Bucks County School District), the
total cost for 70.55 students would be $607,788. The school tax revenues
for the 85 homes, at an average of $2,913 generated per year (same source),
would be $247,605.
The cost to the community of allowing the farm to be developed thus
would be $360,183 per year. ($607,788 costs - $247,605 revenues = $360,183
costs) That is, taxpayers will have to pay over $360,000 in extra
taxes each year just for this one development!
Note too that this shortfall is an ongoing, permanent expense that
will tend to increase over time as education costs escalate. Nor
does this $360,000 shortfall even reflect future capital costs (such
as new school construction, upgraded roads, sewerage or water treatment
facilities) or increased municipal costs (such as more fire, police,
and trash services that new residents will demand). Taxes will
need to rise even more to cover these costs of development.
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Alternatively, the community could choose to purchase a conservation
easement on Honey Hill Farm. Assuming an average cost per acre of
$12,933 for the 100-acre easement (easement and fee simple costs derived
from 1998 appraisals performed for the Bucks County Agricultural Lands
Preservation Board), the purchase price would be $1,293,300. This
means that it would take the community only 3.59 years to
break even. ($1,293,300÷ $360,183/year = 3.59 years).
Buying the farm outright rather than placing a conservation easement
on it also would save the community money in the example above,
but it would take slightly longer to break even on the purchase
(4.58 years, assuming a fee simple sale price of $16,500 per acre.)
Easements are less expensive because not all of the ownership rights
are being acquired.
Learn more about saving money by saving land. Click on image
in the top right-hand corner of this page to view our webcast.
Find out more about this topic by going to our Links
and Resources section.
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