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Annual Reports, Program Data, |
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The Foundation posts in this
section of the website annual reports and other reports, data, and policy
documents required by law or requested by the Board of Trustees, the
Governor's Office, or members of the General Assembly that may be of general
interest as they become available. For example, links to tables on
acquisition values and acreage preserved are posted here. The link to information on the certification of county agricultural
land preservation programs was posted below on |
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FACT SHEETS: AGENDAS: MINUTES: LEGAL DOCUMENTS: FORMS: REPORTS: CONTACT INFORMATION: LINKS: |
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Critical Farms
Report
(Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) At the direction of Chapter 155, Laws of Maryland 2005, the Maryland
Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation and the Maryland Department of
Planning proposed a statewide Critical Farms Program in this Critical Farms
Report submitted to the Governor and the Maryland General Assembly in January
2007. The Program would provide
interim or emergency financing for easement acquisition or fee simple
acquisition and resale with easement to permanently protect critical farms
otherwise likely to be sold for nonagricultural uses. To set up the Program, the General Assembly should pass legislation
to: • fully
authorize the creation and implementation of a Critical Farms Program by the
Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation; • authorize the expenditure of funds by the
Foundation for the Critical Funds Program; and • provide
funds for a Critical Farms Revolving Account. The funding recommendations for the Critical Farms Program are: • Create
a MALPF Critical Farms Revolving Account by legislation in 2007 (Appendix 1)
and provide funding of $4 million annually for four years for a total
Revolving Account of $16 million. • Determine
how best to provide funding for the Program.
The recommendation of this report is to commit $4 million annually for
four years from general funds under the discretionary authorization of the
Agricultural Stewardship Act of 2006. Other options for the Governor and
General Assembly to consider include, but are not limited to, the following:
the Foundation's share of any over-attainment in revenues from the Real
Estate transfer taxes and/or any additional funding sources that may be
established by the Governor and Legislature, including those recommended by
the MALPF Task Force in its Final Report of January 2005. • Provide in legislation the possibility of providing additional funds to the Program in the future in response to a documented need based on increased demand and/or increased acquisition costs. Additional funding may come from the initial funding sources or from other fund sources, such as the future repayment to MALPF of Real Estate transfer tax revenues transferred to the general fund passed by the General Assembly in Senate Bill 305 (2005). |
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FY 2002 Annual
Report
(Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) FYs
2003-2007 Annual Report (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) Annual Reports include information on the operations of the Program;
proposed regulations and policy changes; new legislation; the certification
and recertification of local agricultural land preservation programs; and
updated information on preserved acreage, fair market appraisal values,
agricultural values, easement values, acquisition costs, discounting, and the
change in preserved farmland versus farmland converted to other uses. Please be aware that the FYs 2003-2007
Annual Report is over 200 pages in length.
It will take awhile both to display and to print. |
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Acquisition values, acreage preserved, and other information will be
posted as they become available. Some
of this information is available in the Annual Reports as they become
available; some will only be available here. |
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The |
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MALPF Task
Force: Final Report to the 2005
Maryland General Assembly, January 2005 (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf
format) MALPF Task
Force: Interim Report to the 2003
Maryland General Assembly, January 2003 (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf
format) MALPF Task
Force: Initial Report to the 2002
Maryland General Assembly, August 2001 (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf
format) The Maryland Agricultural Land
Preservation Foundation Task Force was established by House Bill 740 in the
2000 Session of the General Assembly.
The membership was composed on appointments by the Senate and House of
Delegates, the Governor, and ex officio members designated by statute. The Task Force was recommissioned
by Senate Bill 544 of the 2002 Session of the General Assembly. The Task Force's charge has been to study the current program and
practices of the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation; study
its financial standing; review its funding sources and levels; and make
recommendations to improve the Program, practices, and financial standing of
the Foundation. The 2002 recommission charged the Task Force to study and make recommendations for guidlines
for farmland preservation acreage goals; the creation of priority
preservation areas; increased funding from new sources targeted to priority
preservation areas; other revenue sources for farmland preservation to
achieve its statutory goals; the creation and funding of a critical farms
program; changes in provisions about tenant houses; the current and
alternative easement valuation systems; an installment purchase agreement
program; and other appropriate changes to strengthen the Program. The Final Report was issued in January of 2005. The Task Force's activities have now been completed. |
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Maryland's Land
Conservation Programs: Protecting the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed – Governor Ehrlich's Land Preservation Policy (December
2003) (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) This Report was commissioned by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., in
2003. Following the Governor's
directive, the Report was written under the leadership of the Department of
Natural Resources with substantial participation from other agencies in
Maryland with interests in land preservation.
After being reviewed by the Governor's Office, the Report was issued
as a statement of the Governor's priorities to be pursued by Maryland's land
conservation programs. This Report
provides an overview of the range of State land conservation programs, a
summary of their accomplishments, and a statement of the Governor's
principles to guide and focus the implementation of the State's land
conservation programs on preserving the Chesapeake Bay and land critical to
the State's most important resource-based industries, such as agriculture. |
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Elimination
of Districts from the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program – (January 2007) (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) At the direction of the General Assembly contained in Section 3 of
House Bill 769 (2006), in accordance with Section 2-1246 of the State Government
Article, this report was submitted to the Governor and the Maryland General
Assembly in January 2007. This report provides a recommended sequence of actions and
legislation to eliminate districts from the MALPF program, including: ·
An
implementation timeline; ·
Statutory
language for the repeal and reenactment of Sections 2-509 and 2-510 of the
Agriculture Article, including the removal of the requirement for districts
from the easement application process to become effective July 1, 2007, and
the elimination of districts from the program to become effective June 30,
2008; ·
A
process for county and State approval of easement applications; ·
A
provision for optional county districts; ·
A
provision that requires participating counties to establish a right-to-farm
ordinance; ·
A
provision that prohibits properties from being developed or subdivided during
the easement application process; and ·
A
provision that allows for the continuation of tax credits for existing
districts. |
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Map of Protected Lands in
Maryland –
(September 2007) (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf format) This
map was produced by the Maryland Department of Planning (Graham Petto) to illustrate the distribution of MALPF easements,
public open space, and other easements in Maryland. This map is for illustrative purposes only. |
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Sand and Gravel Pilot
Program: Report of the Steering
Committee to the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Agricultural Land
Preservation Foundation – (January 2004) (Adobe Acrobat/.pdf
format) The Sand and Gravel Pilot Program and Report were commissioned in
1999 by Senate Bill 572. The bill
authorized the Foundation to establish a pilot program to determine the
impact of sand and gravel extraction on agricultural practices and
after-mining agricultural productivity, particularly because such extraction
affects MALPF district and easement properties. A steering committee was convened in
August, 1999, with representation from the Foundation's Board of Trustees and
staff, the aggregates industry, Maryland Department of the Environment, local
Soil Conservation Districts, Maryland Natural Resources Conservation
Services, and the University of Maryland.
This is the committee's final report. |
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These are public documents and are provided for general information purposes only. Last revision: |
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STATE OF MARYLAND http://www.malpf.info/reports.html |
