Conservation Easement Is A Quality Of Life Issue

  • Wednesday, October 8, 2014

I am concerned about the impact of two candidates for Signal Mountain Town Council who are putting their personal political ambitions ahead of the citizens’ right to accurate information about a very important issue—the conservation easement agreement.

The purpose of the conservation easement agreement is to ensure that town parkland will remain parkland forever--owned, maintained and managed by the town.  The Land Trust for Tennessee would uphold the terms of the agreement, which prohibits both residential and commercial development and other activities that would degrade its use as recreational parkland—now and in the future.  

The process to develop the agreement has been thoughtful and careful. A group of citizens who applied to serve on the Conservation Easement Working Group deliberated for eight months on the details of how best to protect the land for public enjoyment.  The group then hosted eight hours of public input sessions over two days.  The town attorney and land trust attorney then negotiated the legal terms, which are available for review on the town website.   

Chris Howley states on his FaceBook page that “the agreement also places significant additional liability and potential expense onto the town.”  The truth is there is no additional liability beyond that which we currently have as the landowner.  The only potential expense would come if the town chose to breech the terms of the agreement by clearing the land or building a structure excluded by the agreement.  In that case, the town would be responsible for removing the structure and replanting trees. 

Mr. Howley also states, “Having reviewed the document/agreement, we are taking a town asset and turning it over to a private trust forever for no compensation.”  Yes, that’s true. The intent of the easement is to protect the parkland from people who view it in terms of dollars and cents rather than recognizing its intrinsic value as recreational land and green space for public enjoyment.  The “private land trust” is an accredited not-for-profit organization that holds nine conservation easements on municipal, county and state lands in Tennessee. 

Dr. Spalding states that we have “adequate measures in place to protect the parks.”  In fact, the land could be sold at any time in one 3-2 vote of the council.  Dr. Spalding complains about the town’s “hiring the land trust.”  The town is not hiring the land trust.  The one-time stewardship fee to cover costs of annual visits to the property and the survey required to protect the golf course from inclusion into the conservation lands will be covered by private donations. 

Dr. Spalding inadvertently makes the best argument for having a conservation easement when he states, “We can’t directly control what the state does with their lands but we can control what we do with ours.”  He is exactly right.  Prentice Cooper is a state forest and could be sold for timber or for development at any time.  What impact would that have on our town? We can only control what is ours.  By using the legal instrument of a conservation easement we can ensure that our parkland is not clear cut or sold for development.  We can ensure that it remains parkland for future generations to enjoy. 

The conservation easement is not and should not be a political issue; it is a quality of life issue.  It is disappointing to see candidates who would hijack the future of the park lands in order to spin their way into public office. 

Annette Allen
Town of Signal Mountain

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