Written by Carolyn Marks Blackwood

1. Conservation Easements
A conservation easement is a restriction placed on a piece of property to protect its associated resources.
The easement is either voluntarily donated or sold by the landowner and constitutes a legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on the land in perpetuity, while the land remains in private hands.
In a conservation easement, a landowner voluntarily agrees to sell or donate certain rights associated with his or her property – often the right to subdivide or develop – and a private organization or public agency agrees to enforce the landowner's promise not to exercise those rights. In essence, the rights are forfeited and no longer exist.
Conservation easements protect land for future generations, allowing owners to retain many private property rights and to live on and use their land, while at the same time providing them with potential tax benefits.
An easement selectively targets only those rights necessary to protect specific conservation values, such as water quality or migration routes, and is individually tailored to meet a landowner's needs. Because the land remains in private ownership, with the remainder of the rights intact, an easement property continues to provide economic benefits for the area in the form of jobs, economic activity, and property taxes.
A conservation easement is legally binding, whether the property is sold or passed on to heirs. Because use is permanently restricted, land subject to a conservation easement may be worth less on the open market than comparable unrestricted and developable parcels. Sometimes conservation easements will enable the landowner to qualify for tax benefits in compliance with the Internal Revenue Service.

2. Private contribution or purchase of development rights.

3. Public purchase of development rights.

4. Private purchase of large parcels of land for the purpose of preventing residential development (maintained through deed restrictions and/or contribution of development rights). Such land may or may not be open to public use (for example, preserves owned by organizations).

5. Public purchase of land for the purpose of preventing residential development. Such land probably would be open to public use (for example, a park).

6. Increase active farming.

7. Increase 480A Forestry.

8. Private purchase of large or mid-sized properties, subdivision into parcels that exceed the required zoning, and resale of land with deed restrictions re: additional subdivision.

9. Control of density growth through the Planning Board subdivision review process:
Require clustering of large subdivisions.
Restrict subdivision as needed to protect wetlands, aquifers, streams, steep slopes, and view sheds.

10. Increase the average parcel size of new subdivisions through new zoning requirements. Rezone three and five acre districts in order to double parcel sizes to six and ten acres for new subdivisions.All of these strategies tend to reduce the quantity of land available for residential development. If successful, the market value of existing residences and of land available for development in Clinton would be likely to rise in relation to surrounding towns (like Hyde Park which is already over-built). This is true because Clinton would offer highly desirable and scarce residential development opportunities compared to surrounding towns.
Over time, this condition would increase the share of taxes paid by Clinton residents in the various school districts. To the degree that surrounding towns restricted residential development along with Clinton, school populations, total school taxes, and Clinton’s share of school taxes would be controlled. A Clinton United “school” committee should eventually be formed to address the matter of school taxes in our Town, and to explore the different options that could be taken to control school taxes.