The July 28 editorial on the growing amount of green space in Georgia needed to include more illumination on conservation from the state’s point of view.
Georgia has an excellent conservation initiative, led by Gov. Nathan Deal and capably administered by the Department of Natural Resources and the State Property Commission.
Rather than make conservation grants out of state funds, Georgia encourages natural resource conservation by offering a state tax credit to land owners who qualify.
Conservation eligibility criteria and administrative guidance are clearly publicized on the DNR website and the incentives have enabled an impressive amount of conservation easements and land donations to both the state and not-for-profit land trusts, who also play an important role in Georgia’s reputation for having a well-regulated conservation program.
The tax credit program was initiated in 2006 in the midst of the worst drought in a hundred years.
Development was clearly choking tributaries to important waterways and reservoirs and something had to be done to provide farmers with an alternative financial incentive to selling their farms to developers.
Comparable to other government-sponsored initiatives like the Georgia film credit, which has created so many jobs, and the low income housing tax credit, which has enabled the development of badly needed, affordable housing, the conservation credit works to ensure that more of this beautiful state’s natural resources will be preserved than might otherwise be the case.
Valuable latent benefits also occur when a landowner agrees to conserve property rather than develop it.
Property tax stabilization is a less obvious but no less important by-product of conservation.
Land surrounding a park is inherently more valuable than land that it is not so well-located.
Also, when a land owner puts property into conservation, fewer acres are available to be developed into lots. The housing collapse of the last half decade was due, in part, to an oversupply of lots.
As conservation-eligible properties are conserved, such assets are removed from the existing supply without the negative influence of fire sales, which erode property values and encourage sprawl.
The Georgia Tech Research Institute plays an important role in the Red Fields to Green Fields initiative. GTRI has studied the economic and sociological impact of parks in a dozen U.S. cities.
While it is true that disruptions in the housing and financial services industries have created many creative conservation opportunities, observers like GTRI, the Georgia Conservancy and the land trust community across Georgia need to be commended for their role in assisting Georgia’s state-led conservation activities.
Walter Hall is managing member of Yukon Property Consultants in Atlanta.
