Prime farmland on the river bottom in Reliance will now stay that way forever. Harold Webb and sisters Sandra Hyder and Marilyn Rousseau recently signed off on the sale of development rights to the property. While they still own the 63 acres, they have given up the right to develop it by creating a conservation easement.

According to Harold Webb Jr., it has been a family goal for more than 25 years to find a way to protect the farmland, and the state’s Heritage Trust Fund filled in a missing piece of the package. The federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program provides 50% of the cost for purchasing development rights as a way of helping to compensate farmers who give up the ability to sell land for development. Under that program, the landowner must donate 25% of the value of the development rights and there must be a match for the remaining 25%. The project was awarded  one of the first eight grants from Tennessee’s new Heritage Conservation Trust Fund, thus completing the package. The payment to the family was the difference between the value of the land as farmland and as development property.

Webb pointed out there will be no loss of property tax to the county because the land is already in the Greenbelt, the lowest property tax value, and will remain there. The conservation easement covers the land from the cornfields across Hwy. 30 from the Webb house to the Hiwassee River and down to the end of the farmland below Junebug Creek. It also includes the 6-acre site where the barns and other farm buildings are located. Under the rules of the easement, there are to be no new structures on the land. Fences can be moved and the buildings can be replaced or expanded, although new construction must be approved to insure that they remain compatible with the landscape. There is no requirement that the land be farmed, although Webb intends to continue doing so, but it cannot be developed.

Webb said his family has been farming the land since 1880 and has always wanted to preserve it. He said his commitment to Webb Bros., especially his Uncle Oliver, was to make every effort to keep it as farmland. “We’ve accomplished that,” he said. Oliver Webb took over the farm at age 16, consolidated the fields, and worked the land until he died.

Now that the 63 acres of prime farmland will stay that way, Webb is hoping to find a way to protect the face of the mountains on the 500 acres of mountain land.

He said he hopes there will be money available to work on maintaining the historic structures on the property, which were named to the National Register of Historic Places as the Reliance Historic District. The National Register has begun including historic landscapes, so Webb hopes to expand the District to include the land. He said he would like to see the entire Hiwassee Valley from Spring Creek to Childers Creek designated since there has been no change in more than 100 years.

Does he regret losing the potential to make big bucks by selling the land for a subdivision? “Absolutely not,” Webb said, adding it is a big relief to finally meet a 25-year family goal and one that he has been actively pursuing for the past five years. The family was never in a position to donate the land as a conservation easement, but the pieces finally fell together for a plan that met their needs. Despite the frustrations of the process, probably made more difficult because it was a first for the state, he is happy. “It was like an early birthday present.”

He said he would like to see more farms in Polk County enter into a conservation easement program, noting the prettiest farmland is on the river bottoms, which makes the rivers so attractive. He said he would like to see more money available for conservation easements because they provide a fair, equitable way to preserve farmland but not completely at the expense of the farmer.