The rural areas of Lancaster County seem like storybook illustrations of prosperous farmland. The ubiquitous covered bridges may make a visitor think that the bucolic look has been “themed” for tourists. And, given its location near the East Coast megalopolis, the tourists have certainly discovered Lancaster County’s “Pennsylvania Dutch” attractions. But this is still definitely a working landscape. Lancaster leads all counties in the Northeastern United States in revenue from agricultural products. As a result, landowners here generally believe that farming has a long-term future. That could partly explain why so many County farmers have permanently preserved their land through purchase of development rights (PDR), land trusts and transfer of development rights (TDR).

The horse-powered wagons of Amish farmers are a common sight in Lancaster County.

Lancaster County is only 60 miles west of Philadelphia and has experienced rapid growth rates since the end of World War II. Between 1950 and 1980, the County population grew by 127,000. In response, Lancaster County formed an Agricultural Preservation Board in 1980 to find ways of protecting agricultural land. In 1983, the Board started a purchase of development rights (PDR) program funded by County taxes and the PDR program administered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Willing sellers submit applications to sell their development rights. The Board appraises the proposed easements, prioritizes them and makes offers to the top-ranked applications. As of the end of 2006, the Program had secured 642 easements, preserving 54,000 acres of farmland.

The Lancaster Farmland Trust is a private non-profit organization formed in 1988 to assist in farmland preservation. Roughly one third of Lancaster County farmers belong to Plain Sect communities, meaning Amish, Mennonite and Brethren. Plain Sect farmers resist government programs but they will work with a private organization such as the Trust (as well as sell transferable development rights to developers, as described below.) Partly for that reason, the Trust has been an invaluable partner in farmland protection. As of 2007, the Trust had preserved 15,000 acres within 250 farms.

In addition to the work of the Agricultural Land Preservation Board and the Trust, several townships in Lancaster County have initiated local farmland preservation efforts. Manheim Township adopted a transfer of development rights (TDR) program in 1991. In a TDR program, developers can obtain additional density in areas suitable for development, called receiving areas, in return for buying transferable development rights, or TDRs, from farmers who agree to permanently preserve their land. Manheim Township uses money from its own general fund to buy TDRs and deposits them in the Township’s TDR bank. When these TDRs are sold to developers, the proceeds become a revolving fund and are used to make additional TDR purchases. Manheim Township has cooperated with the Lancaster Farmland Trust on the preservation of four farms.
Immediately north of Manheim, Warwick Township has gotten amazing leverage from its TDR program. Warwick uses its own general fund money to match funds from the County’s PDR program. The resulting preservation creates TDRs which the County allows Warwick to keep and deposit in the Warwick TDR bank. When developers buy those TDRs, the proceeds are used to fund additional farmland preservation. As of 2008, Warwick had preserved 961 acres of farmland using the TDR program alone. Based largely on the positive experience in Manheim and Warwick, three other townships in Lancaster County have recently adopted TDR and several other townships are seriously considering adoption of TDR programs.

In 2007, the Farmland Preservation Report estimated that the combined efforts of the County, its townships and the Lancaster Farmland Trust had permanently preserved a total of 72,831 acres, making Lancaster County the most successful locally-operated farmland preservation program in the nation. Based on the County’s commitment to preservation and the growing interest here in TDR, Lancaster County seems destined to remain in the forefront of agricultural preservation well into the future.