Title
Resolution to Approve Participation Agreement with Webster Township and Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation and Appropriate $91,800.00 from the Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage for Purchase of a Conservation Easement on the Ford-Goldsmith property (8 Votes Required)
Memorandum
This resolution approves a participation agreement with Webster Township and Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation for the purchase of a conservation easement on a 90-acre property owned by Spencer Ford and Susan Goldsmith in Webster Township. The resolution also approves an appropriation of funds not to exceed $91,800.00 (17% of purchase price) for the purchase from the Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage Proceeds.
The landowners applied to the Webster Township Purchase of Development Rights Program and the Township has been the lead agency in the negotiations with the landowners. The Township commissioned an appraisal, completed in October 2017, that determined the fair market value of the conservation easement on the property to be $540,000.00. The Township also applied for and was awarded $264,600 in USDA-NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) funding for this project. The Township is the lead agency and will be the grantee of the conservation easement.
Spencer Ford and Susan Goldsmith Property, Webster Township
The property is approximately 90 acres and is located in Section 28 of Webster Township with legal access from Daly Road. It is owned by Spencer Ford and Susan Goldsmith. The property scored in the top 1% of applications received to date by the Greenbelt Program in the scoring system developed and approved by the Greenbelt Advisory Commission. The property is mostly agricultural and contains approximately 80 tillable acres in one contiguous field, plus approximately 4 acres of woods and less than one acre of wetlands, and is located within the Huron River watershed. It is adjacent to the Nixon and Smyth Conservation Easeme...
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