Md. Code Regs. 15.15.05.01 - Purpose
A. This chapter
provides the process for an eligible landowner to request that the Maryland
Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation terminate an agricultural land
preservation easement. Each easement granted to the Foundation is of perpetual
duration and may be terminated only under extraordinary circumstances. The
easement's broad purpose is to:
(1) Provide a
present and future source of agricultural products within the State for the
citizens of the State;
(2) Control
urban expansion, which is consuming the agricultural land and woodland of the
State;
(3) Curb the spread of urban
blight and deterioration; and
(4)
Protect agricultural land and woodland as open-space land.
B. An easement may be reviewed for possible
termination 25 years after the purchase of the easement, but only if the Board
of Public Works approved the easement for purchase before October 1, 2004,
unless the right to apply to terminate the easement has been waived in the deed
of easement or in a subsequent written instrument.
C. As Agriculture Article, ยง
2-514, Annotated Code of
Maryland, provides, a termination must be approved by the Foundation and by the
county governing body where the land is located. Similar to when an easement is
purchased, the Foundation and the county have separate duties and
responsibilities when reviewing an easement for possible termination. In the
case of easement termination, the county's responsibility is to consider
factors relating to local land use policies, while the Foundation's separate
responsibility is to determine whether future profitable farming is feasible on
the land under easement. The Foundation may only approve the termination if it
finds that future profitable farming is not feasible. If either the county or
the Foundation deny any termination request, an easement may not be
terminated.
Notes
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