168 landowners seek to sell state rights to parcels

3/25/2005

The Ohio Office of Farmland Preservation received 168 applications from landowners interested in selling development rights to the state, including 23 from Fulton County and three from Wood County, by last week's application deadline for the spring funding round.

The office, which is part of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, is ranking the applications and will make offers this spring to the owners of the farmland it wants most, staff said.

From elsewhere in northwest Ohio, the office received four applications from Seneca County and two applications from Defiance County.

Landowners who sell their development rights retain ownership of their property but give up their ability - or that of any future landowner of that property - to develop it in perpetuity.