Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- A local nonprofit dedicated to preserving farmland has purchased development rights to 40 acres near Fairview Loop Road that was once part of a homestead in the early 1900s.

The purchase of the 40-acre plot at 2445 S. Davis Road is a first for the Alaska Farmland Trust Corporation, a Palmer-based group incorporated two years ago to preserve state farmland.

The group spent $680,000 in federal and Matanuska-Susitna Borough funds to purchase the rights to the land from owners Leroi and Margaret Heaven.

The deal, enforced by a conservation easement, allows the Heavens to retain ownership of the property and to raise crops on it or lease it to others for agricultural use.

But they can not build homes on it, drill, sell trees for commercial use, or do other commercial developments like trailer parks, restaurants or nightclubs.

Farmland trust manager Steve Gallagher said the group hopes the deal will be the first of many.

"We're absolutely at a starting point," he said.

The Heavens also praised the sale, saying they have watched the Valley lose large swaths of farmland to development over the years.

"It's nice to have the open space," he said. It's slowly going away, and people can't afford to hold onto it."

The Heavens, both longtime Valley residents, said that, without the deal, they were not sure they would have been able to hold onto the land.

For years, the couple has allowed a farmer to grow hay on the property and they have sold a percentage of the hay to pay the property taxes.

But both are now retired and if that income fell through, they might have had to sell, they said.

Nationwide, there is concern about losing farmland to subdivisions and strip malls, Gallagher said. In the Mat-Su, many farms have been sold off in recent years in prime locations like along Springer Loop Road near Palmer.

Some sell for the profits. Others, however, find themselves in a financial bind because they cannot afford to pay the taxes on their land, he said.

Buying the development rights gives the owners an incentive not to sell.

It also ensures new farmers will have places to grow crops without having to pay exorbitant up front land costs, Gallagher said.

"You can't start a farm today and spend $20,000 an acre, or spend $10,000 an acre and have to clear it. It's just not feasible," he said.

The group is looking at garnering development rights to farmland all over Alaska.

But it is focusing on Mat-Su where land is most at risk for being gobbled up by development. The Valley had until recently been for years running the fastest growing community in the state.

The Heavens said they have owned the 40-acre parcel since 1981 and used it to grow potatoes and hay as well as offering it for use to a variety of community groups from dog trainers to churches.

It was once part of a 160-acre homestead owned by the Edlund family in 1914, said Leroi Heaven, who heads a local historical society.

He also stores historic buildings on the property that he has helped restore. Four old cabins -- one dating to 1915 -- sit on the land today.

Gallagher said the $680,000 paid to the Heavens was based on the difference between appraisals estimating what the couple could sell the property for without restrictions and what it's worth with the limits on development.

According to borough property tax records, the property was most recently assessed at $346,500.

Gallagher declined to give the appraisals' estimate of the property's worth, but described the borough's estimate as being behind the times.

"The borough hasn't just caught up on some of those things," he said.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky at www.adn.com/contacts/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.

COME CELEBRATE

• Alaska Farmland Trust Corp-oration(www.akfarmland.com) will hold a celebration with live music and a barbecue Aug. 16 at the Heaven's property at 2445 S. Davis. Suggested donation is $25. For more information call 745-3390.

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