Conservation Restrictions

The conservation values of the property must be protected in perpetuity. This is typically done through a legal document referred to here as a Conservation Agreement. A Conservation Agreement may be a deed with restrictive language, a conservation easement, language in a Letter of Dedication, etc. or a combination of documents.

The Conservation Agreement must be submitted with the application and will be reviewed by NCDNCR and agency experts

Primarily, the Conservation Agreement must strive to protect the qualifying public benefit(s) in perpetuity. Carefully consider the effect of any reserved right on the conservation value in perpetuity and the recipient’s ability to monitor and defend the conservation lands.

At a minimum, the Conservation Agreement must:

  • be perpetual
  • protect the qualifying conservation value present at time of donation
  • specify location of reserved rights to the extent possible (in cases where reserved rights are not specified, the reviewers will assume the worst-case scenario regarding how the conservation purpose would be impacted when the rights are exercised)
  • allow recipient and/or holder of the Conservation Agreement to review reserved rights before they are exercised
  • provide recipient and/or holder of the Conservation Agreement permission to monitor the property in perpetuity

Additional terms and documents may be required for specific public benefits. For example:

Expect management plans or evidence of participation in management programs for forestland and farmland preservation and fish and wildlife conservation to be required. These plans or programs may need to be referenced in the Conservation Agreement.

Retained rights within a Conservation Agreement must not: 

  • result in fragmentation of the property
  • degrade the conservation value including but not limited to these examples:
    • placing buildings that block a historic landscape view,
    • erecting cell or other tall towers under military flight paths,
    • allowing conversion of areas that protect native wildlife and habitat,
    • activities or infrastructure that are incompatible with public trails
    • locating residential or commercial structures in the floodplains
    • provide for conversion of qualifying public benefit to a non-qualifying use (e.g. conversion of agricultural land to developed areas; impoundments of free-flowing streams)
    • allow off-site impact, such as changes to natural hydrology

Reserved home sites  
The general rule for a reserved home site is used, in order of preference:

  1. Exclude the reserved home site from the conservation area.
  2. In the cases where there is some practicality for a home site to be within the conservation area, and the home site is reserved in the corresponding agreement, specify the location. Examine location, footprint/envelope, impervious surface, building square foot/height, as well as reservations for access road and utilities and other associated retained rights. Prescribed caps or limits will help evaluate the impact on conservation values. Reviewers would expect impact to be minimal, and the recipient (agreement holder) to have right of review before construction.
  3. Conservation Agreements where a home site is reserved in the conservation area, but the location is not identified as part of the agreement will be evaluated as if the future home site will be in the least ideal location (e.g. prime farm fields, situated to maximize fragmentation of wildlife habitat, interfere with the “feel” of a historic site, etc.). Reserved homesites without specified locations are unlikely to be approved by DNCR.

If a program or recipient has guidelines for the number of reserved home sites, those guidelines should be followed. In all instances, fragmentation of wildlife habitat and impact on the public benefit should be minimized.

Retained Commercial Interests
The conservation tax credit does not prohibit landowners from profiting from their land with activities such as leasing hunting and fishing rights or pine straw raking. However, these agreements should be evaluated to ensure that the activity will not degrade the conservation values.

Other activities, for example, “conservation developments,” “conservation golf courses,” and other similar projects where a portion of the land is heavily altered while retaining open space in the remainder of the property and/or making efforts to mitigate the negative environmental impacts in the developed area are not appropriate use of the conservation tax credit.

Lands required to be dedicated pursuant to local governmental regulation or ordinance and dedications made to increase building density levels permitted under a regulation or ordinance are not eligible for a conservation tax credit.

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