By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

LOVELL – Conservationists are calling Lovell’s new public fund designed to protect land from development an innovative tool for a Maine community grappling with accelerating growth.

“The time is coming when Lovell is going to be under some higher degree of development pressure than today,” said Tom Henderson, executive director of the Greater Lovell Land Trust. “And the citizens of Lovell are visionary, they’re out ahead of this, they’re prepared, they’ve set in place ordinances and a funding mechanism that will help them respond to this when it happens.”

Residents voted to accept the funding mechanism at their annual town meeting earlier this month. The policy targets the penalty fees collected from property owners who transfer their land out of tree growth or open space programs, both of which are taxation schemes designed to tax land owners in a way that’s consistent with the use of the property.

Now, instead of putting these fees into a general town fund, Lovell will feed the money into an account that can be used to buy conservation easements or land for preservation.

The fund will grow according to the rate of development, Henderson said. The more property owners move their land out of tree growth or open space and into the market, the faster that land will be developed. But the penalty fees will help the town keep pace.

And while the fund might never be bursting with dollars, Henderson said these types of public funds often attract foundation money and matching grants.

“My suspicion is the money may never be enough,” Henderson said. “If you lose 50 acres, you might not have the money to buy 50 acres. But when towns have a grassroots commitment, they are able to attract funding from outside the community… Foundations really like it when there’s local community investment in the project. This really catches their attention.”

In Lovell, development is not as rapid as it is in many surrounding towns in the region. But it is happening. From 1995 to 2003, the town collected about $3,133 in penalty fees. In 2004, Lovell acquired $7,686 in penalty fees, and then in 2005, this number increased to $8,950.

Henderson said he hopes the concept of conservation accounts spreads across Maine. Already 51 percent of New Hampshire towns have similar funds, he said.

Penalty fees collected for moving land out of open growth, tree growth or farm land taxation programs varies depending on how long the land has been in the program, what the fair market value of the land is, and what the back taxes are, Henderson said.