In an editorial today, a Roanoke Times writer likes Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s goal to protect 400,000 acres of Virginia land from development by the end of his four-year term in 2010, and endorses the practice of providing tax credits for conservation easements. However, the Times sensibly supports a proposal to put a cap on the conservation tax credit that would limit abuses, such as inflated land appraisals and gigantic tax windfalls for land developers.
I agree that conservation easements are a valuable growth-management tool — they can protect land containing unique environmental, aesthetic and historical assets. However, no one should deceive themselves that conservation easements will do much to address the underlying problem they’re designed to protect against: the extraordinarily land-intensive pattern of development that is consuming ever larger chunks of Virginia’s countryside.
The underlying problem is zoning codes enacted by counties in the major population centers of the Washington, Richmond and Hampton Roads New Urban Regions that restrict the ability of developers to respond to market conditions and build, or redevelop, at higher densities. Virginia’s major metro areas could accommodate decades of population growth simply by allowing a market-driven evolution toward denser settlement patterns. When they restrict density, these jurisdictions don’t halt growth — they displace it. Developers seek land elsewhere, usually on the metropolitan periphery.
Conservation easements don’t halt growth either — they, too, displace it. If developers can’t build on land protected by easements, they’ll just sniff around for land nearby to build upon.
Whether you conserve land through outright purchases or tax credits, there’s not enough money in Virginia’s budget to purchase or protect all the land potentially threatened by development. If Virginians want to save their Countryside, they must come to grips with the policies in the major population centers that prevent developers from building “up” and force them to build “out.”
