In this subtitle the following words have the meanings indicated. “Application” means an application by a local government to the Board of Public Works to fund the purchase of an interest in real property under a local land preservation program. “Program” means a local land preservation program established in accordance with this subtitle. “Sponsor” means a local government.

The General Assembly declares that: It is State public policy to improve, conserve, and manage the quality of the waters of the State and protect, maintain, and improve the quality of water for public supplies, propagation of wildlife, fish and aquatic life, and domestic, agricultural, industrial, recreational, and other legitimate beneficial uses; It is also the policy of the State to preserve valuable open space in its natural, agricultural, or forestry use, which will not only help contain sprawl development but will also improve the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries by limiting point and nonpoint sources of pollution and help meet a goal of the Chesapeake Bay agreement permanently to protect 20% of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by 2010; The promotion of water quality in this State is closely related to the promotion of land preservation, requiring integration and coordination of the planning for the development and use of the water and associated land resources and inviting innovative solutions for protection of watersheds, including acquisition of land and easements for water quality protection and preservation of natural resources; and New funding sources designed to improve water quality and land preservation should be made available in the form of matching grants to local governments so as to leverage and fully utilize all available money and create incentives that will encourage local governments to develop their own funding for water quality protection and land conservation and preservation projects. A county or municipal corporation may adopt a local land preservation program to enhance natural resource, agricultural, forestry, and environmental protection and park and recreational uses as provided in subsection (a) of this section while maintaining the viability of resource–based land usage and proper management of tillable and wooded areas through accepted agricultural and silvicultural practices for farm production and timber harvests. A program shall provide funds to the local government units to purchase interests in real property from willing sellers, including easements, transferable development rights, and fee estates. A program shall encourage partnerships among the federal, State, and local governments, and nonprofit land trust organizations and encourage local land conservation initiatives. Each program shall be administered in accordance with local law adopted under the authority of this subtitle. A program shall be funded by a continuing, dedicated, and clearly identified local or private funding source, not derived from State funds, that is adopted in accordance with State or local law. Funding under the program may not be used by the local government to supplant existing or planned local funds dedicated to land preservation. Subject to availability of funds under § 5–9B–05 of this subtitle, a program shall also be eligible for State funding each year that equally matches locally provided funding. Commencement of State funding under paragraph (2) of this subsection is also subject to the attainment of a specified number of counties participating and a specified population of participating counties. The local governing body may adopt regulations to implement a local land preservation program under this subtitle, including procedures for expediting acquisitions and purchasing and selling transferable development rights and using the proceeds related to purchasing and selling transferable development rights in accordance with local law. The local governing body shall establish a method acceptable to the Department for appraising the value of conservation easements acquired under this subtitle. The local governing body shall use the method used by the county under Program Open Space for appraising fee simple interests in property acquired under this subtitle. Any method for appraisal established by a local governing body may not include a value for any resource used or reserved by the owner for private economic benefit. A local governing body may enter into agreements with other governmental units, including the Rural Legacy Board, the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, and the Maryland Environmental Trust, for the purpose of establishing partnerships to carry out a local land preservation program.

The sponsor shall submit applications to appropriate State and local units and consider any recommendations made regarding the applications. An easement acquired under this subtitle is perpetual and may not be extinguished or released. In a county with a locally adopted transferable development rights program and with the approval of the county, funds under a program may be used to purchase transferable development rights in the county in accordance with the locally adopted transferable development rights program. The right to resell the development right, if any, shall be stated in the instrument of purchase. Transferable development rights may be resold only to owners or option purchasers of real property located in priority funding areas, including municipal corporations, within the county in which the rights were purchased. All easement acquisitions must be recorded among the land records where the real property is located.

A sponsor that applies for funding to implement a local land preservation program under this subtitle shall: Develop a plan to guide the conservation of property in the jurisdiction under the program; Ensure that each application is consistent with the approved local land preservation and recreation plan for the county, to guide the acquisition of property interests listed in the application; and Submit the application, description of properties and easements to be acquired, together with a description of consistency with the plan and any conditions placed on the conveyance of the property, to the Department of Natural Resources for review. A sponsor may satisfy the requirements of subsection (a)(1) of this section with materials developed under or in conjunction with: The comprehensive plan for the jurisdiction reviewed and revised under § 1–416 or § 3–303 of the Land Use Article; The local land preservation and recreation plan under § 5–905 of this title; An approved local agricultural land preservation program under § 2–512 of the Agriculture Article, for the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program; An approved annual program submitted by the sponsor under Program Open Space; An approved rural legacy area and grant agreement under the Rural Legacy Program under Subtitle 9A of this title; The GreenPrint Program under Subtitle 15A of this title; or Another acquisition plan prepared by, jointly funded, or accepted by the Department for the protection of local or State land preservation or recreational goals.

A sponsor may submit funding requests for acquisition of property under its local land preservation program to the Department of Natural Resources for evaluation and submission to the Board of Public Works under this section. The Department shall: Review local programs and applications for funding submitted by sponsors for consistency with the local plans under § 5–9B–04(a) of this subtitle; Submit applications reviewed under item (1) of this subsection to the Board of Public Works for funding, along with the Department’s recommendation on the application; and Coordinate applications received with available remaining funding. Applications for funding under this section in a fiscal year shall be received at a date determined by the Department and reviewed using criteria established by the Department under § 5–9B–06(a)(2) of this subtitle. Applications recommended for approval by the Department shall be forwarded to the Board of Public Works with a favorable recommendation in accordance with the criteria.

The Department of Natural Resources shall: Provide technical support and assistance to local governments in the development of local land preservation programs, including mapping, and identification of smaller parcels that may be aggregated for protection under local land preservation programs; Adopt criteria for distributing available State funding to local land preservation programs in accordance with the purposes of this subtitle; Assist sponsors to coordinate land preservation efforts in their regions under local land preservation and recreation plans with related efforts under Program Open Space, the Rural Legacy Program, the Heritage Area Program, the Agricultural Land Preservation Program, and the GreenPrint Program; and Consult with other federal, State, and local units and private land trusts in order to facilitate conservation efforts under this subtitle. The purposes of the criteria adopted under subsection (a) of this section include: Preservation of open space; Containment of sprawl development; and Improvement of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and other watersheds of the State. The criteria shall be based on: The current population of participating jurisdictions and adjacent areas; Projected population growth in those areas; The sensitivity of surface and ground waters in and derived from those areas to degradation from point and nonpoint source pollution; and Giving higher priority to applications for the protection of lands and land uses that provide the highest level of protection for water quality. The criteria shall be used at the start of each fiscal year to allocate funding available to local programs in participating local governments in order to provide for appropriate and timely deliberation and review of eligible proposals for acquisition by each participating local government. The Department may initially establish allocations of available funding based on the funding that is made available to each participating local government under Program Open Space in the same proportion that the local government receives Program Open Space funding in relation to the Program Open Space allocations of all participating local governments.