​​​​​​​​​​​​​Many landowners who care about protecting their land may not want to sell it, and are not in a position to donate it. A good alternative is a conservation easement. It allows you to protect your land, and benefit from potential tax breaks, while keeping ownership and the rights to continue traditional uses of the property. A conservation easement is a legal agreement between you, the landowner, and Alachua County that allows us to work as partners to permanently protect the land. You place voluntary restrictions on land uses to protect its conservation or agricultural values. These restrictions become part of the property deed, so they apply to whoever owns the land in the future, thereby protecting your original conservation intent. Alachua County Forever ensures that all future owners look after the land in the way that you set out in your agreement by periodically visiting the property. . Alachua County is able to work with landowners to establish conservation easements on agricultural lands and on environmentally significant lands to help protect the open space, rural character, and resiliency of the county for future generations.

What is a Conservation Easement?​

Conservation Easements (CEs for short) are voluntary deed restrictions that landowners place on their property to protect important resources by limiting certain activities and uses. CEs are designed to keep land available for farming or ecosystem values, provide benefits to landowners, and conserve land and water. CEs are flexible documents tailored to each property and the needs of landowners. As easements, they can cover either an entire parcel or portions of a property. Alachua County is able to work with landowners to establish CEs or farmland, or on environmentally significant lands. Landowners can either negotiate a sale of the CE, or donate the value of their CE, or a combination of both.​

Conservation Easement Basics

Conservation Easements permanently protect land while keeping the land in private ownership and on local tax rolls. CEs protect properties by limiting subdivision, development, and uses that are inconsistent with farming, ranching, or environmental values. In the case of an easement sale, landowners can use the proceeds to make improvements or address personal needs. Often for farmlands, landowners have used funds to construct, expand, or repair buildings or structures; buy equipment for farming, processing, or marketing; buy additional land; pay down debt; adopt conservation practices; finance retirement or other family needs; and facilitate the transfer of the land to a successor. An easement’s value, determined by a property appraisal, is typically the fair market value of the property minus the value of any deed restrictions the landowner puts in place.

CEs can allow lots to be reserved for family members. Landowners retain title to their property and can still restrict public access, use their property in the ways that were protected under the easement rights, farm the land, use it as collateral for a loan, or sell their land. Landowners continue to be eligible for county, state, and federal farm programs. Easements with Alachua County Forever require participation in Best Management Practices and encourage conservation of soil and water resources.

Benefits of Conservation Easements

Conservation easements:

• Are designed to achieve multiple goals such as wildlife conservation, food production, and financial benefits to landowners, farmers, and ranchers.
• Permanently protect land while keeping the land on local tax rolls to support local economic resilience.
• Are flexible documents that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual landowners and unique properties.
• May provide landowners with tax benefits including income, estate, and property tax reductions.
• Allow the landowner to help decide which activities should be limited to protect specific resources.
• Are legally binding on future landowners, ensuring that conservation values are upheld in perpetuity.
• Permit structures but may restrict them to a designated building area and/or limit impervious surface area.
• Can help landowners, farmers, and ranchers transfer their land to the next generation.
• Provide long-term benefits to the environment and local community by protecting critical soil and water resources.

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