Since 1978, Howard County has been pro­tect­ing farm­land through the Agri­cul­tural Land Preser­va­tion Pro­gram (ALPP) using three methods:

• The pur­chase of agri­cul­tural preser­va­tion ease­ments by the County
• The ded­i­ca­tion of agri­cul­tural preser­va­tion parcels as pro­vided for in the County’s zon­ing regulations
• The pur­chase of agri­cul­tural preser­va­tion ease­ments by the Mary­land Agri­cul­tural Land Preser­va­tion Foundation

Using these tools, the County has pre­served over 20,000 acres of farm­land in the Rural West of Howard County.

County Pur­chased Ease­ments
Through this vol­un­tary pro­gram, a farmer whose land meets cer­tain size and soil cri­te­ria can offer to sell a per­pet­ual ease­ment to the County, while hold­ing fee sim­ple title to the land and con­tin­u­ing to farm. The farm may be sold, but the ease­ment, which restricts the devel­op­ment of the prop­erty, remains with the land and binds all future owners.

County Ded­i­cated Ease­ments
The ALPP also accepts agri­cul­tural ease­ments ded­i­cated to the County as a result of the sub­di­vi­sion process, either as den­sity send­ing parcels or clus­ter sub­di­vi­sion residue parcels.

Mary­land Agri­cul­tural Preser­va­tion Foun­da­tion (MALPF)
In addi­tion to ease­ments pur­chased by the Howard County ALPP, the MALPF pro­gram also pur­chases agri­cul­tural ease­ments, and has acquired almost 4,000 ease­ment acres in Howard County. The MALPF pro­gram is admin­is­tered locally, which means that any ques­tions or requests per­tain­ing to MALPF prop­er­ties should be directed to the Howard County Agri­cul­tural Land Preser­va­tion Pro­gram Supervisor.

Ease­ment Ter­mi­na­tion
All MALPF ease­ments prior to 2004 con­tain a pro­vi­sion that allows a prop­erty owner to peti­tion to buy back their devel­op­ment rights from the State after 25 years, if it can be shown that prof­itable farm­ing is no longer fea­si­ble on the property.

For an ease­ment to be ter­mi­nated, both MALPF and the county’s gov­ern­ing body must approve the owner’s request. MALPF’s respon­si­bil­ity is to judge eco­nomic fea­si­bil­ity. Howard County exec­u­tive Ken Ulman has approved a pol­icy for ter­mi­na­tion review that focuses on land use pri­or­i­ties, includ­ing con­sis­tency with com­pre­hen­sive plan­ning goals and the effect of ter­mi­na­tion on vic­i­nal prop­er­ties.
The orig­i­nal intent of the MALPF ease­ment was that it would be per­pet­ual, and that ter­mi­na­tion would require extra­or­di­nary cir­cum­stances. Howard County will work very hard to pro­tect the invest­ment it has made in agri­cul­tural preser­va­tion over the years.

Howard County Agri­cul­tural Land Preser­va­tion Board (ALPB)
The ALPB makes rec­om­men­da­tions to the County Exec­u­tive on the acqui­si­tion of new agri­cul­tural land preser­va­tion ease­ment prop­er­ties, reviews pro­pos­als con­cern­ing land already sub­ject to an ease­ment and assists ALPB staff with pol­icy cre­ation and refinement.

Con­ser­va­tion Ease­ments
On Sep­tem­ber 24, 2007, County Exec­u­tive Ken Ulman and Howard County Con­ser­vancy Pres­i­dent Ann Holmes Jones announced a part­ner­ship to pro­mote preser­va­tion ease­ments on parcels of less than 50 acres. This pro­gram fights “bad infill” across the County by pro­tect­ing small tracts of land from future devel­op­ment by encour­ag­ing land own­ers to place land into preser­va­tion easements.