PLT Criteria for Evaluating Projects
PLT Criteria
The mission of the Placer Land Trust (PLT) is to work with willing landowners and conservation partners to permanently preserve natural open spaces and agricultural lands in Placer County for future generations.
For all land protection projects PLT must ensure that the project will result in substantial public benefit and that the land stewardship obligations will be carried out in perpetuity.
Each potential land protection project is carefully evaluated by PLT’s staff and Project Selection Committee. The staff and Project Selection Committee perform the preliminary evaluation of potential projects, and make recommendations to the Board of Directors. If the Board of Directors directs staff to pursue the protection of the project, then PLT staff perform due diligence investigation of the land and its resources, (including site visits and review of property documents) as they work with the landowner on the project. Ultimately, the project must undergo legal review by both parties (PLT and the landowner) and final approval by both parties.
Placer Land Trust uses standard forms and checklists to make the determination whether or not to preserve a certain property.
The evaluation by PLT of potential projects is based in part upon the following:
- Protection of the land provides clear public benefit.
- The land contains one or more significant natural, environmental, agricultural, scenic, recreational, or historic/cultural values.
- The project must be financially feasible; funding must be identified to cover the costs for the planning, transaction, acquisition, and ongoing stewardship.
- PLT has the capacity to protect the land and its public value in perpetuity.
The following circumstances may lead to PLT rejection of a proposed project:
- Adjacent properties are being developed in a way that is likely to significantly diminish the conservation values of the land, or the proposed land is part of a development proposal which, overall, is likely to have significant adverse impacts on conservation resources and which PLT cannot endorse.
- The landowner insists on provisions in a project that PLT believes would not offer adequate protection to the land’s primary conservation values.
- There is reason to believe that an easement would be unusually difficult to enforce.
- The cost of management, maintenance and/or monitoring exceeds available PLT funding.
- Contamination by toxics or other environmental damage is present or a likely possibility.