County continues to ponder limits on 30x30 program
Staff writer
Commissioners took a second look at a draft of a proposed anti-30x30 program resolution they first saw a week before.
They suggested some changes and once again sent it back for county counsel Brad Jantz to revise.
Jantz reminded them the public should have an opportunity to weigh in before any decision is made.
Zoning director Sharon Omstead said she thought the draft left a lot of ambiguity.
She struggles with two of the provisions.
She doesn’t believe the county had a say in a landowner making an agreement.
Commissioners change every few years, she said.
“I would think that if the landowner wants to enter a conservation easement in perpetuity, that’s his right,” Omstead said.
Commissioner Jonah Gehring said he thought it might be possible for someone to sign a conservation easement and transfer land to the federal government “under the table.”
Marion County landowner Steve Schmidt, who lives at Hesston, attended the meeting online and sent comments by email.
“Just as ‘Coke’ is a catch-all designation for soft drinks, ‘conservation easement’ is a catch-all designation for all sorts of such easements specifying allowable uses of land, some easements good, and some bad,” Schmidt wrote. “As an owner of ranchland, I can tell you the biggest threats are noxious weeds and invasive species whose seeds are spread by being carried in animals’ hair, by birds, or by the wind, often from ‘undisturbed and improperly managed’ property in this county — conservation easement or not.”
On property taxes, Schmidt wrote: “Please note that a properly written agricultural conservation easement will provide for continuation of current ag use.”
An ACE protects croplands and grasslands on working farms and ranches by limiting non-agricultural use of the land.
“While the ACE may reduce fair market value of the property, it does not reduce property tax; property tax on ag land is computed by a formula based on type of ag use, not fair market value,” Schmidt wrote. “And, a reduced fair market value may someday be a huge benefit to a young rancher trying to get a start or expand his or her operation if they can get good grazing land below fair market value.”
Schmidt said he did not want to see county overreach become a “solution” to federal overreach.
“Near Lincolnville a few years ago, an 80-acre pasture of virgin native prairie containing splendid Santa Fe Trail swales was plowed up and planted in wheat,” Schmidt wrote. “The owner had decided, in effect, that the prairie and the trail remnants would be obliterated in perpetuity. There is no way they will ever be restored.
“On the other hand, I am saying I want my virgin prairie and Santa Fe Trail swales to remain intact, hopefully in perpetuity, using an agricultural conservation easement. In both instances, the future owners will have to abide by what the former owners decided they wanted to do.”
Schmidt said he didn’t intend to appear critical of how other property owners had chosen to use their land.
“I just ask that I be shown the same respect — to be allowed to use my land as I wish,” he wrote.
Jantz told commissioners he could make changes they suggest and look at the issue again.
Commissioner Randy Dallke said the issue, pushed by commissioner Kent Becker, is overstated.
“From what I see, it’s something to think about, but I don’t see it around here,” Dallke said.
He said he had received a call about the issue Sunday, and the caller said, “You’re the first commissioner to answer the phone.”
“It’s just not a thing we need to worry about,” Dallke said.