At an Aug. 4 meeting of the Bunker Hill Community Club, Maine Farmland Trust announced their plans for a Jefferson property they purchased earlier this year.
The 133-acre Rolling Acres Farm abuts Punk Point Rd. and Charlie O Way. The property, which the land trust purchased for a reported $1.6 million, boasts more than a half-mile of undeveloped shore frontage and 30 acres of hay/pasture land.
Maine Farmland Trust will place an agricultural easement on at least 120 acres of the property – including the entire shore frontage and working farmland. The future of the remaining 13 acres has not been determined.
Maine Farmland Trust is a Belfast-based nonprofit, formed in 1999 to “preserve farmland and keep farms working,” according to the organization’s material.
At this point, Maine Farmland Trust hopes to sell the property to a single buyer willing to place an easement on the entire property, said Stacy Gambrel, Maine Farmland Trust’s Project Coordinator for Rolling Acres Farm.
However, “given its high value, even as protected farmland, we may have to pursue alternatives,” Gambrel said.
An agricultural easement prevents any development in perpetuity other than that which is related to agricultural use. Farm buildings and worker housing may be built, but property with an agricultural easement may not be subdivided or developed for residential use. Any agriculture use is permissible under an agricultural easement, and the use may be changed at any time. The agriculture does not have to be organic, and there are no similar limitations on farming practices, Gambrel said.
If Maine Farmland Trust is unable to find a buyer willing to place the entire property under easement, they will pursue sale of the property in two protected farm lots or sale with a 120-acre easement, with 10 to 12 developable, unprotected acres around the existing farmhouse, Gambrel said in a telephone interview on Aug. 5.
Another possibility the trust will consider if they are unable to sell the property in a timely fashion, six to seven months, Gambrel said, is to sell the existing farmhouse with a two- to three-acre lot, as well as up to four two-acre house lots in the wooded portion of the property, sold separately from the 120-acres of protected property.
“If we have a two- to three-acre wooded lot that we can sell for $20,000 or $30,000 to support our overall mission of protecting the majority of the land, we think that’s a small price to pay,” Gambrel said at the meeting. “We don’t really want to go that route unless we have to.”
One reason for the emphasis on selling the property quickly is that Maine Farmland Trust borrows the money to purchase properties they protect. “We don’t have a pool of money sitting there to buy land with,” Gambrel said.
Those loans enable them to buy farmland that might otherwise be turned over to house lots and find a farmer to purchase the property with an agricultural easement.
However, due to the loss in value when a property is placed under easement, Maine Farmland Trust “is likely to lose money” on the property, and extended interest periods exacerbate the problem.
As planned under any of the described sale arrangements, Maine Farmland Trust will sell the property for about $500,000 less than it cost to buy it, including legal fees, interest on the loans, etc.; they will attempt to make up that amount with grants and fundraising, Gambrel said.
They have applied for a $390,000 USDA grant. If they receive that grant, they will still need to raise $110,000 “from the region” to break even on the property, she said.
