MONROE - Officials from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on Thursday attended a meeting of the Green County Technical Advisory Committee.
Keith Foye, land management section chief at DATCP, presented information to about 20 TAC members, primarily representatives of townships and villages, on what the Farmland Preservation Plan was, and the process for rewriting it.
The rewrite provides an opportunity to apply for tax credits for landowners.
Green County is among a second wave of counties in the state that are in the rewriting stage, with a deadline of late 2012 for completion.
By the beginning of January 2016, Wisconsin counties that write a Farmland Preservation Plan, and get approval, can provide their landowners with the opportunity to apply for a $5 per acre tax credit, per year, officials have said.
The credit is administered by the Working Lands Initiative, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
A plan for the preservation of farmland was last written in Green County in the early 1980s. As part of the rewriting process, each township will decide what it wants to keep as rural development and what to designate development land. The presentation given by Foye was followed by an explanation of the plan by Robert Rudd of Rudd and Associates.
Rudd recommended that TAC members should have a joint meeting with their city, town or village boards; and their planning commissions. Such meetings would provide more input as the rewrite process moves ahead, he added.
"It's important to have rationales in your plans," Rudd said.
The TAC members will meet again at 7 p.m., Sept. 8, in the Justice Center's multi-purpose room.
Keith Foye, land management section chief at DATCP, presented information to about 20 TAC members, primarily representatives of townships and villages, on what the Farmland Preservation Plan was, and the process for rewriting it.
The rewrite provides an opportunity to apply for tax credits for landowners.
Green County is among a second wave of counties in the state that are in the rewriting stage, with a deadline of late 2012 for completion.
By the beginning of January 2016, Wisconsin counties that write a Farmland Preservation Plan, and get approval, can provide their landowners with the opportunity to apply for a $5 per acre tax credit, per year, officials have said.
The credit is administered by the Working Lands Initiative, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
A plan for the preservation of farmland was last written in Green County in the early 1980s. As part of the rewriting process, each township will decide what it wants to keep as rural development and what to designate development land. The presentation given by Foye was followed by an explanation of the plan by Robert Rudd of Rudd and Associates.
Rudd recommended that TAC members should have a joint meeting with their city, town or village boards; and their planning commissions. Such meetings would provide more input as the rewrite process moves ahead, he added.
"It's important to have rationales in your plans," Rudd said.
The TAC members will meet again at 7 p.m., Sept. 8, in the Justice Center's multi-purpose room.