"When one is asked to conjure up an image of the inside of a manufacturing facility, they envision an assembly line with people and machinery efficiently putting together a product that will be sent to market and sold. Here in Fayette County, the "factory floor" is rural farmland. I am certainly not the first person to use this type of symbolism, but the image is crystal clear. The "factory floor" here in Lexington is an international icon of two giant economic impacts - agriculture and tourism. By protecting Fayette County farmland with conservation easements, PDR provides fuel for these local economic engines.
The economic impacts produced by this world-famous "factory floor" are staggering, and the numbers speak for themselves. Fayette County farmland supported a $354 million agriculture industry in 2005, the second highest in the state. In that same year, $169 million in cattle were sold at the Bluegrass Stockyards. As most people know, horse farming is a huge business here in Fayette County. In 2005, Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sold over $855 million in Thoroughbred horses. In September of this year, Keeneland sold $384.3 million during the yearling sale. In 2005, the economic impact of tourism in Fayette County totaled $1,430,479,973 in expenditures.
In addition to the local economic impact of agriculture, the local government investment in the PDR program has been doubled and tripled in some cases. The PDR program has received matching grants totaling $24,384,454 to date. Of this amount, $15 million was a match grant from the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy, and it has been matched 1:1 with local funds. The PDR program has also received a match grant from the Federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program every year since 2001. So far, $9,134,454 has been awarded by the FFRP, and $6,880,670 has been match two-to-one with local and state funds or one-to-one with local funds. The 2006 award of $2,245,884 will be matched in the current round of conservation easement acquisition. In addition, the Fayette County Agricultural Development Board awarded $250,000 to PDR this year.
In its sixth successful year of operation, PDR has become an award-winning and nationally recognized farmland preservation program. In 1958, an urban services boundary was implemented as a planning tool to limit development to urban areas served by sanitary sewers. Next, in 1999, the minimum lot size in rural Fayette County was raised from 10 acres to 40 acres. Finally, in 2000, an ordinance was passed creating the Purchase of Development Rights Program and the Fayette County Rural Land Management Board, Inc. This background information, numerous documents and the PDR map, are available on the Web at www.lfucg.com/pdr. One should note that there are six main goals of PDR:
In accordance with the Urban County Government Charter and the Rural Land Management Plan (adopted in 1999), the PDR Program supports the integrity of the Full Urban Services District. Concentrating growth in an urban center reduces the cost of public services to local government.
PDR supports the purpose of the Urban Services Boundary as described in the Rural Land Management Plan.
The program protects the agricultural, equine and tourism economies of Fayette County by conserving large areas of farmland.
It conserves and protects the natural, scenic, open space, as well as historic and agricultural resources of rural Fayette County.
PDR uses conservation easements to protect 50,000 acres of rural Fayette County over the next 20 years.
It provides funding to protect 50,000 acres of farmland in order for Fayette County to support the existing agricultural infrastructure and its international identity as the 'Horse Capital of the World.'
PDR has a staff of two LFUCG employees who manage and administer this voluntary program. Applications to the PDR program are evaluated and the farms are visited by the staff. The applications are ranked by the staff and the Fayette County Rural Land Management Board. The farms' conservation easements are appraised in rank order. The board makes offers to purchase the development rights on the farms and places conservation easements on the properties. Once a purchase contract is signed, a closing is scheduled. The farms are monitored annually for easement compliance. Each conservation easement has a farm conservation plan and an agriculture water quality plan. The farms may be sold or bequeathed, but the easement runs with the title of the land.
Billy F. Van Pelt is program administrative officer of the LFUCG Purchase of Development Rights Program.