its productive use. The underlying philosophy of the APR program is that 

 this loss of productive cropland must be curtailed and deflected to the 

 state's millions of non-farm acres, if agriculture is to have a permanent 

 role in the Massachusetts economy. 



APR Program Oblectives 



Together with the Farmland Assessment Act (Chapter 61A M.G.L.), the 

 APR Program is the cornerstone of the state's agriculture land protection 

 policy. The main objective of the Agricultural Preservation Restriction 

 Program is to try to arrest the continued conversion of productive land 

 through deed restriction and revitalize the agricultural industry by 

 making land more accessible to farmers and their operations more finan- 

 cially secure. The specific goals of the Program include the following: 



1. To retain the best and most productive agricultural land remaining 

 in the Commonwealth; 



2. To provide an opportunity for farmers to purchase farmland at afford- 

 able prices; 



3. To help farmland owners overcome estate planning problems; 



4. To provide working capital to enable farm operations to become more 

 financially stable; 



5. To address other personal ownership problems such as age, health, and 

 retirement and; 



6. To develop a positive attitude among farmers, agribusinessmen, land- 

 owners and urbanites that agriculture in Massachusetts is here to 

 stay and that state government recognizes and supports agriculture's 

 important contributions to the state's economy and rural character. 



The Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program is the only means 

 for farmland owners to realize the cash equity in their land and at the 

 same time ensure it will remain open and undeveloped. The value of the 

 Agricultural Preservation Restriction (or development rights) is the 

 difference between the full market value of the land and the land's agri- 

 cultural value. In return for paying for the APR, the Commonwealth re- 

 ceives a deed restriction, in perpetuity, prohibiting any and all activi- 

 ties detrimental to the land's present or future agricultural potential. 

 This cash payment is an investment in the state's agricultural land re- 

 source, which will be repaid time and again through the operation of a 

 viable agricultural ecomony. 



Purchasing development rights is a unique method for retaining pro- 

 ductive farmland in areas under urban pressure. It is less costly than 

 purchasing the land in fee, and can be more effectively administered than 

 the complicated alternative of transferring development rights. Also, 

 purchasing development rights is more permanent than farmland assessment, 

 zoning or agricultural districting. However, no single method is the sole 

 panacea for the loss of agricultural land. As the degree of urban pres- 



39 



