Agricultural Security Areas

What is an Agricultural Security Area?

An Agricultural Security Area (ASA) is a tract of agricultural land that has been officially designated as an agricultural district by the local municipality. ASAs are intended to promote more permanent and viable farming operations by strengthening the farming community’s sense of security in land use and the right to farm.

Benefits of ASA:

As a landowner, there are a variety of benefits to enrolling land in an agricultural security area. The benefits include:

• Landowners are given limited protection against local Municipalities may not enact ordinances that unreasonably restrict farming operations nor may municipalities deem normal farming operations as a nuisance.
• State agencies may not condemn a landowner’s property without special permission from the State Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board.
• Landowners enrolled in ASA are eligible to participate in the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program.

If interested in this program, please contact Dickinson Township to find out more information.

 

Agricultural Conservation Easement

What is an Agricultural Conservation Easement?

An Agricultural Conservation Easement (ACE) is a voluntary, legal agreement that permanently protects farmland from non-agricultural development. In Pennsylvania, these easements allow landowners to keep their land in active agricultural use while giving up the right to develop it for purposes such as housing or commercial buildings.

The land remains privately owned and farmed, and the easement is recorded with the deed, applying to all future owners. Many landowners receive compensation for the development rights they give up. Agricultural conservation easements help preserve farmland, protect open space, and support the long-term vitality of local agriculture.

Benefits of ACE:

It is the purpose of this program to protect viable agricultural lands by acquiring agricultural conservation easements that prevent the development or improvement of the land for any purpose other than agricultural production. Further, it is the purpose of this program to:

• Encourages landowners to make a long-term commitment to agriculture by offering them financial incentives and security of land use.
• Protects normal farming operations in agricultural security areas from incompatible non-farming uses that may render farming impracticable.
• Protects farming operations from complaints of public nuisance against normal farming operations.
• Assures conservation of viable agricultural lands in order to protect the agricultural economy of Pennsylvania.
• Provides compensation to landowners in exchange for their relinquishment of the right to develop their private property.

Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program

The Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was developed to strengthen Pennsylvania’s agricultural economy and to protect prime farmland. The Program incorporates the use of county, state, federal and local funds to purchase agricultural conservation easements on prime agricultural land from willing landowners. The Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program works by paying the farmer to place certain restrictions upon the land to maintain and permanently preserve high quality, functional farmland. The land continues to be the farmer’s private property, and the farmer retains all privileges of land ownership, except the ability to sell the land for non-agricultural development or to develop the land for non-agricultural purposes. An agricultural conservation easement is permanent; therefore, if a landowner wishes to sell the land, the easement is transferred and the new landowner must continue to use the property exclusively for agriculture.

If interested in this program, please contact the Cumberland County Planning Department to find out more information.