Conservation Easement Program

Over a decade ago, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and the Friends of the Wissahickon launched a joint Conservation and Façade Easement Program.

The program is designed to limit development on open tracts of land that border the Wissahickon Valley and its tributaries; preserve key undeveloped sites within Chestnut Hill; and protect historically and architecturally significant buildings throughout Chestnut Hill and adjoining neighborhoods.  A conservation plan was developed which set forth criteria to help identify key tracts of open land and critical historic or architecturally significant structures.

FOW is pleased to announce the recent publication of Protecting Your Land with a Conservation Easement. This full-color brochure outlines ways that you can voluntarily preserve your land while protecting your family's financial security. Click here to read the brochure.

Conservation Easements

A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a property owner and a qualified third party, which conveys specific development rights from the property owner to the third party in perpetuity. Thus, future development is restricted. Each easement’s restrictions can be tailored to the property and to the interests of the individual owner, but must meet criteria established by the organization to which the easement is being donated.

Property owners may be entitled to a charitable deduction based on the value of the interest in the property given up as long as the Internal Revenue Service’s standards are met. Conservation easements provide a more fine-grained degree of voluntary control over property than possible under local government controls.

The Conservation Easement Program gives individuals the opportunity to protect and enhance the Wissahickon Valley and Chestnut Hill through voluntary controls that may provide them with tax advantages. While the easement program intends to actively promote the preservation of those properties it has identified as priority properties, the program will also accept easements on any properties that meet established criteria.

Results

Since its inception, the joint Easements program has negotiated a total of 30 easements that protect 54 acres of open space and 12 historic facades.

For more information about the Easements program, or to request a copy of our new brochure, please contact Audrey Simpson at the FOW/CHHS office at 215-247-0417.