Group Working To Save Texas Land

BOERNE — As the owner of a 120-acre tract bordering Interstate 10 in southern Kendall County, Art Wilson appears to be in an enviable position.

His family land is in the middle of one of the fastest growing areas around San Antonio, and his property has easy access to Kendall County's major thoroughfare.

However, Wilson's land will not be home to a shopping center or housing development any time soon. In fact, Wilson says his land will never change from its current pristine state — even after his death.

"My plans are to have no more than 5 percent of this property ever developed," he said.

Wilson's wishes are not just the pipe dreams of a Hill Country landowner. Because of a legal option called a conservation easement, he has made sure his wishes will be carried out no matter who owns his land in the future.

Wilson has not stopped with his own land, either. As a board member of the Cibolo Conservancy, a Kendall County nonprofit organization, he is stepping up efforts to educate landowners in the Cibolo Watershed about their options to preserve local land and protect it from development. The Cibolo Watershed includes parts of Kendall, Comal, Bexar and Guadalupe counties.

"If you have the right to pave over your property and destroy it forever, you ought to have the right to conserve it," said Brent Evans, the conservancy's interim director.

Conservation easements, which Wilson refers to as privatized zoning, allow landowners to give up certain land rights in order to guard their property against future development. The conservation easement is a legal document that is attached to the property's deed.

In Wilson's case, he agreed not to clear-cut the land and to limit building to a handful of sites so the property will never be developed, even after his death.

"It is irrevocable except for one thing," he said. "The city or government can condemn your property."

In a conservation easement, the rights that are given up by the landowner are transferred to a nonprofit organization such as the Cibolo Conservancy, which in turn makes sure the agreement is kept even if the land is sold.

"One of the misconceptions people have is you give that land up or give access to the public. That's just not so," Wilson said.

"The only thing by law is whoever you give (the rights) to needs to be able to come onto the property to make sure the easement is being adhered to," he added.

Because rights are given up, however, the property must be reappraised at a lower value. This usually translates to lower property taxes, and because the rights are given to a nonprofit organization, they also are considered to be a charitable contribution.

Wilson said this may help some people make the decision more quickly, but it should never be the only factor.

"It is not as good financially as selling your property," he noted.

What it is good for is protecting land that may be historically significant or otherwise may have to be sold to pay taxes after the owner dies.

"One of the main estate-tax reasons of the conservation easement is to keep family farms and property in family hands," explained Bill Jolly, a conservancy board member and Boerne lawyer.

Because the conservation easement lowers the value of land, Jolly said it lowers tax bills and makes it more feasible to pass land from one generation to the next.

"There really are three reasons to do this," he said. "You love your property. You love your property. You love your property."

Evans said the Boerne-based group was founded in 1998 and currently has two conservation easements in the Cibolo watershed.

He said the group is trying to educate landowners about their conservation options.

"At the pace that America is growing, I think it's way important," he said. "The vast majority of acres in Texas are in private hands, and one-third of that land will change hands in the next 30 years at least. The answer is not for conservation groups to go out and buy that land. The fate of our natural resources is in the hand of private landowners."

Though the group primarily is focusing on the Cibolo Creek area, it also can help neighboring landowners find options through similar land trusts or larger versions such as the Texas chapter of the Nature Conservancy, which manages land across the nation, Evans noted.

"We are interested in working cooperatively with other land trusts," he said.

"We are not at all competitive."

For more information on conservation easements, call Evans at the Cibolo Conservancy, (830) 249-4616.