County Buys Farm Development Rights.

• Position: Brief Article

Eager to preserve farmland from encroaching development, Lake County, Illinois, Board of Commissioners hope to test a program that will allow them to buy future land development rights, but not the land, from farmers. The idea of buying land-use rights has been undertaken with success in other locales, including Carroll County, Maryland, which has obtained easements for 33,336 acres of farmland over the past 20 years. The state-run program has been buying permanent land easements, which precludes landowners from subdividing for residential or...