| Overview The 1997 General Development Plan’s agricultural and forest preservation goal is to preserve agricultural, forested and rural areas of the County. The implementation program comprises all the programs and mechanisms currently operating in Anne Arundel County to achieve local and state goals. Program policies focus on maintaining agriculture as a viable and sustainable sector within the County’s economy and on preserving agriculture as a key element of the rural character of South County. Easement Acquisition Mechanisms 1. Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF) The program is a purchase of development rights program. When the State of Maryland purchases your development rights, you voluntarily sell your right in perpetuity to develop your farm for residential, commercial, or industrial use. This means that, for whatever compensation mutually agreed upon by you and the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, you will preserve the land for agricultural use, subject to the Annotated Code and the Foundation’s regulations. Anne Arundel County has participated in the MALPF Program since 1980. As of Spring 2007, Anne Arundel County has a total of 4,317 acres are permanently preserved through MALPF easements. 2. Anne Arundel County Agricultural and Woodland Preservation Program The County’s Agricultural and Woodland Preservation Program was created in 1990 to supplement the MALPF program and to offer an alternative for agricultural preservation that recognized the County’s small farms. This program is a purchase of development rights program where you voluntarily sell your right in perpetuity to develop your farm for residential, commercial, or industrial use subject to Anne Arundel County Code Article 17 Title 10. Permitted activities include any farm use of the land; operation at any time of machinery used in farm production or the primary processing of any ag products; any normal ag activities and operations, in accordance with good husbandry practices, that do not cause bodily injury or directly endanger human health, including activities that may produce normal ag related noise and odors; and the sale of farm products produced on the farm where the sales are made. As of Spring 2007 a total of 5,600 acres have been permanently preserved through this program. In 1999 an Installment Purchase Agreement (IPA) option was added to stimulate interest and add value to the program. An installment purchase agreement (IPA) is a contract between the County and the property owner selling his/her development rights. In the IPA, the County promises to pay the purchase price for an easement on specified dates in the future. The IPA also commits the County to pay interest on the outstanding purchase price between the time that the easement is given to the County (at closing) and the date that the purchase price is paid to the seller. IPAs pay $1,000 each year for as long as 30 years, when the balance of the purchase price is paid. More Information >> Agricultural Preservations FAQs 
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>> Program Deed of Easement 3. Rural Legacy Program In 1998 the County designated an approximately 32,400-acre portion of South County as the Anne Arundel South Rural Legacy Area (RLA). The RLA covers an area south of Central Avenue and north of Bayfront Road, and extends west to east between the Patuxent and the Rhode Rivers. The Rural Legacy Program, run by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), consists of two concepts: first, delineating a specific geographic area of a county in need of focused land conservation efforts, and, second, acquiring easements from willing landowners within that area. The key goals of the Anne Arundel South Rural Legacy Area are to complete a greenway of gently rolling farmland, preserving views from some of the County’s most scenic and historic roads, and protecting multiple other scenic, historic and natural resources. Approximately 11,800 acres (36 percent) of the RLA have been protected. Of these approximately 855 acres were preserved through the Rural Legacy program. For additional information, go to the Resource Management/Land Conservation area at www.dnr.state.md.us | 
