As animals get forced out and wildflowers get trampled by development, a little-known law is giving owners of the remaining open land an inexpensive way to hang on to it while providing forest preserve districts a way to protect more open space and wildlife habitat.
The Illinois Conservation Rights Act, which allows landowners to give up development rights to their property in exchange for substantial tax breaks, has been around since 1977.
But only in the last few years has the law become widely recognized in northeastern Illinois, according to forest preserve officials, who say it could serve as one of the cornerstones of open-space acquisition programs as land prices rise and fewer natural areas remain to be bought.
The law is preserving a stand of 200-year-old oak trees in the midst of a Will County subdivision. It has been less successful in Du Page and Lake Counties.
``It`s a tool that`s available, but probably hasn`t been used as extensively or as effectively as it could be,`` said Robert Espeseth, a specialist in conservation easements at the University of Illinois. ``The primary reason is there hasn`t been a good education program. People don`t understand them.``
``It`s a new idea,`` said Mike Pasteris, assistant director of the Will County Forest Preserve District, which increasingly is using such easements to supplement its holdings. ``It`s only hit our area in the last five years. Now it`s sort of caught on here.``
Conservation easements have been used extensively since the early 1960s on the East Coast and in California and Wisconsin to preserve scenic areas and open space, particularly in the face of fast-growing development. They have been used to keep out billboards along roadways, to provide access for projects like the Appalachian Trail and to protect wildlife areas next to national parks, according to Espeseth.
They work by allowing landowners to donate or sell development rights on their natural or agricultural property to a forest preserve or other non-profit land conservation group in exchange for what are often substantial breaks on income, property and inheritance taxes.
For instance, if land with development potential is worth $10,000 an acre, the land`s owner, by donating development rights to the forest preserve district, could essentially drop the value to perhaps $2,000 an acre, the same as land that is unfit for development.
Provided the development rights are transferred to a non-profit group or forest preserve, that drop in value is considered a charitable contribution by the Internal Revenue Service, Espeseth said.
Property taxes also normally drop substantially on the parcel if the township tax assessor agrees with the decrease in value, Espeseth said. Though not all assessors are aware of the law, Pasteris said that most assessors in Will County ``are going along with it.``
Finally, because the value of the land becomes substantially less under the restrictive easement, it can be passed on to children, without the children having to pay high inheritance taxes. Those taxes sometimes force heirs to sell portions of valuable land.
Throughout the perpetual agreement, owners of the land can continue to live on it and use it as they always have. They can also sell the property, though future owners also must abide by the restrictions.
The forest preserve, in turn, is allowed to inspect the land and ensure the owners are not building on it or otherwise ruining its natural assets. Under some agreements, they also can negotiate for rights to build trails or provide some sort of public access.
Such agreements are becoming particularly useful in northeastern Illinois for property owners who, faced with fast-rising property values, want to preserve their natural land but no longer can afford the taxes.
But the agreements aren`t for every landowner, Pasteris said.
``Some people, no matter how we word it, think it`s an intrusion by the government`` and don`t want to cooperate, Pasteris said.
Others own only small isolated parcels of land that would be hard for the forest preserve to monitor, he said, and thus may not be accepted. The best candidates for the program are parcels next to existing forest preserve land or those with unique properties, including rare animals or plants.
Some landowners, particularly in Lake and Du Page Counties, don`t want to give up their development rights in exchange for a tax credit. Instead, they demand a hefty payment, sometimes 80 percent or more of the land`s value.
``For us to pay full price and get only an easement doesn`t make sense,`` said Craig Hubert, administrative officer for the Du Page County Forest Preserve District. ``We would hope we would be able to pay as little as 10 percent of the value.``
Paying for such easements also is a big issue in Lake County, where some residents have objected to spending money for land they can`t enter.
``It`s a public issue,`` said Mike Fenelon, supervisor of planning and design for the Lake County Forest Preserve District. ``They say, `I`m paying all this tax money and buying rich people`s land and I can`t go on it, I can just look at it.`
``People don`t realize the public benefit of just having land open.``
The fastest growth in such easements appears to be happening in Will County, where developers as well as private citizens have agreed to grant such easements. For instance, in Wedgwood Highlands, a 95-home development being built in southeast Homer Township, developers have agreed to grant an easement on a large wooded lot in the center of the property that contains 200-year-old oak trees.
The county also plans to seek easements from homeowners adjacent to some of the county`s existing forest preserves, Pasteris said.