By SARIT LASCHINSKY

Special to The Press

Weisenberg supervisors discussed, during their July 12 meeting, a preservation contribution request from the Wyatt Gehringer farm, 9076 Loghouse Road, which led to a larger conversation about preserving the township’s agricultural and open spaces.

Donna Wright, conservation specialist with the Lehigh County Farmland Preservation Board, said she was working with the landowner.

She noted the farm has been an applicant on the preservation board’s ranking list since 2011.

After preserving a number of farms, Wright said the Gehringer farm was chosen this year for preservation.

This will be funded through the county, and Wright described how an appraisal is done on the chosen applicant’s property.

Wright said the appraisal is based on the price-per-acre difference between four other farms of similar size and stature which have been preserved, and four similar farms that are not preserved.

She said this price difference is offered for preservation.

For the Gehringer Farm, the price was $6,610 per acre but Wright noted the county program’s cap is $6,000 per acre.

She asked whether the board would be willing to put in the additional $610 per acre, a little over $21,000 in total for the property.

Wright said the township had several options - having all the funds come out of the general fund in one lump sum, installment payments, funding part of the $21,000 or none at all.

“Basically, it’s trying to get Weisenberg to put their toe in the water to help toward preservation,” she said. “We’ve been very fortunate so far that we’ve had quite a few farms from the Weisenberg community we’ve preserved in the past.”

Wright said at the moment Weisenberg has 4,379 acres preserved across 52 farms.

She said to pay for these farms’ preservation $11.6 million came from the state and $3.2 million came from Lehigh County.

Weisenberg Township did not contribute any money to the preservation of the farms.

Wright said it was important for Weisenberg to help pay for the preservation of the Gehringer farm and others in the future.

She referred to figures compiled approximately eight years ago by the Heritage Conservancy and Penn State University.

“If you have an acre of land and you’re getting $1 of taxes for that acre, if you have open space or farm, woodlands, that kind of thing ... it’s going to cost you about 36 cents of that dollar to maintain, infrastructure wise,” she said.

Wright said maintenance for commercial development can run from 99 cents to $1.10 on the dollar, while residential development can cost $1.35 or above.

“So, it does not pay, in a sense, to have residents. It pays to have open space,” she said.

She said these figures have been proven state and nationwide, and Pennsylvania is first in preserved land among all states.

Additionally, Wright said if townships have farms on the waiting list which are close to other preserved properties, or if a township farm is planning to be developed and the municipality would not like it to be, the township can jump in and have it preserved “out of order,” for which she said a preservation fund would be useful.

Wright also spoke to actions being taken by other local townships - Lower Milford, Upper Saucon and Upper Milford - to put funding toward farmland and open space preservation.

She said the county’s preservation ranking year ends in July, and for 2022 it is likely Weisenberg resident Albert Granger’s 84-acre farm will be picked for preservation.

She also said the average per-acre cost in Weisenberg is $5,000 per acre but recently due to increases in real estate prices, the per acre cost has also increased.

In response to a question from Supervisor Tony Werley, Wright said the Gehringer farm is not the first time a Weisenberg property has come in over the county’s cap.

She said at least eight farms out of approximately 20 have come in over cap since 2007 in Weisenberg alone.

Wright said this was the first time the preservation board has come to the township to ask for funding.

“And, I will say we’re getting pressure from the county to come and ask municipalities to see if they’ll put a little skin in the game,” Wright said. “They’ve figured out that having some farmland where farmland needs to be is really helpful for everybody, infrastructure-wise, as well as taxwise.

“People want to have open space. People want to have the farms.”

Solicitor Peter Lehr asked, in terms of the specific Gehringer farm, how would the township’s contributions be theoretically recognized.

Wright said the preservation board must follow state forms and guidelines, and a specific township-county funded agreement of sale and deed of easement would be executed.

She said the preservation board would also ask the township to write a letter of intent or pass a resolution to memorialize its intent to contribute to preservation.

She said an agreement of sale is done for the Gehringer Farm already, regardless of the township’s participation.

Lehr said there would likely be no resolution that evening, which Wright acknowledged, adding she had not been expecting one and just wanted to look into the township’s interest.

“It’s a big thing and you guys haven’t participated before,” she said.

Supervisor Richard Bleiler said he liked the idea of preserving as many acres as possible but asked whether, instead of going over the cap, the township could support or supplement farms which might not qualify for preservation yet in order to get them included.

Wright said there are many applicants on the waiting list, including several in Weisenberg further down the list, but according to state law the board must start at the highest-ranking property and move down the list.

She said a process is in place for the municipality to pay for the property’s appraisal, adding the board’s appraiser charges a $1,700 flat fee per appraisal regardless of farm size.

Wright also said through the Municipal Partnership Program, if the township can come up with two-thirds of the cap amount, the land preservation board will pay the other third.

Bleiler said he was “very much in favor” of the preservation programs and he would like to see the township work with them “in some aspect.”

His fellow board members agreed.

Ultimately, supervisors said they were in favor of the preservation idea but were not ready that evening to put up a defined number for the Gehringer farm or overall preservation.

They would have additional discussions on the topic and get back in contact with Wright and the preservation board if any questions arise.