Rappahannock County
“Rappahannock County was among the eight jurisdictions statewide that Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced this week would receive fiscal-year 2014 farmland preservation grants. The eight localities to receive the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) grants must use the funds to preserve farmland within their boundaries through local Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs, which compensate landowners who work with localities to preserve their land permanently by voluntarily placing a perpetual conservation easement on it.
VDACS allocated $149,678 each to the counties of Albemarle, Clarke, Fauquier, Isle of Wight, James City and Stafford, and the city of Virginia Beach. Rappahannock County will receive an $11,000 grant. The allocations total a little more than $1.058 million, bringing the total allocation of state matching funds to $8.68 million since 2008, when PDR funds were first distributed.
Rappahannock’s fiscal-year 2014 distribution follows a $50,000 PDR grant the county received last year; the grant funds for both last year and this year have already been matched by the Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance (RCCA), says county administrator John McCarthy.
This is the seventh time that the state has provided state matching funds for certified local PDR programs. Of the 22 local PDR programs in Virginia, 18 have received local funding over the past few years. To date, more than 6,700 acres on 49 farms in 12 localities have been permanently protected in part with $6 million of these funds.”
~Writes Rappahannock News
Click here to learn more
No comments:
Post a Comment