PLT
CRITERIA FOR
EVALUATING PROJECTS
The mission of the Placer Land Trust (PLT) is to work with landowners and conservation partners to permanently preserve natural open spaces and agricultural lands in Placer County for future generations.
Protection of land is accomplished primarily through two methods:
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Acquisition of property – fee title ownership – through donation, bargain sale, or sale at fair market value.
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Acquisition of conservation or agricultural easements through donation, bargain sale, or sale at fair market value.
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 proposed land protection project is carefully evaluated by thorough due diligence investigation of the land, its resources, and many other factors (including legal review).
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 – on the following criteria:
A. Protection of the land clearly benefits members of the community or region and there is public support.
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is likely to be developed to a use that does not preserve its special value to the community.
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supports endangered, threatened, rare, or locally important species or ecological communities.
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supports ecosystems with high educational or scientific value.
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contains important farm or ranch land
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supports the protection of water quality
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contains wetlands, flood plains, stream banks, ponds, creeks or other water ways.
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has high recreational value and/or is adjacent to or encompassed within public recreation areas
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has unique historic value
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is adjacent to existing PLT holdings, public land or other protected land
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is adjacent to greenbelts or natural corridors which establish connections between natural areas
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is part of or protects prime views
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The project can pay for itself.
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The project will be inexpensive.
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The project lends itself to immediate fundraising.
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The landowner will provide financial resources to cover costs for PLT to own and maintain the property (or hold and monitor the conservation easement).
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Grant funding has been pledged for the project.
The following circumstances may lead to PLT rejection of a proposed project:
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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
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The landowner insists on provisions in a conservation easement that PLT believes would not offer adequate protection to the land's primary conservation values
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There is reason to believe that an easement would be unusually difficult to enforce
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The cost of management, maintenance and/or monitoring exceeds available PLT funding
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Contamination by toxics or other environmental damage is present or a likely possibility
To learn more about how lands are evaluated for preservation, contact Executive Director Jeff Darlington at (530) 887-9222 or jeff@placerlandtrust.org.
 Placer Land Trust 11521 Blocker Drive, Suite 100 Auburn, CA 95603 (530) 887-9222 info@placerlandtrust.org |