HAGERSTOWN, MD (November 3, 2020) – On Wednesday, October 21, 2020, the State of Maryland awarded Washington County $1,691,000 for their Rural Legacy Program and approved an over 12,000-acre expansion of its Rural Legacy Area.
Rural Legacy is a conservation easement program funded by the
Maryland Department of Natural Resources that works to permanently preserve agriculturally, environmentally and historically significant properties near Antietam Battlefield and its surrounding areas. The County settled its first Rural Legacy easement in 2000 and has accrued more than 7,000 permanently preserved acres through the program since. Qualifying properties must lie within the County’s designated Rural Legacy Area, have an Agricultural assessment designation, and have development rights to sell.
The program is administered locally through the Washington County Department of Planning and Zoning. For more information on the Rural Legacy Program, please feel free to contact Land Preservation Planner, Chris Boggs, at 240-313-2447 or via email at
[email protected].