Conservation Easements in Ottawa County, MI: The PDR Program

Ottawa County is one of Michigan's fastest-growing counties, and its farmland is disappearing accordingly -- more than 14,000 acres lost in the five years before this research. In response, the county's Agricultural Preservation Board runs an active Purchase of Development Rights program that pays farmland owners to place a permanent agricultural conservation easement on their land. Here's how it actually works, and what it means whether you're the one selling development rights or buying a parcel that already has.

This page covers what's specific to Ottawa County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

Why Ottawa County built its own farmland-preservation program

The same growth the county hub documents -- roughly 4% population growth between 2020 and 2025, among the fastest in Michigan -- is directly implicated in a real loss of farmland: reporting on the county's preservation efforts cites more than 14,000 acres of Ottawa County farmland lost to development in the five years preceding this research. In response, Ottawa County's Department of Strategic Impact and its Agricultural Preservation Board administer a Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program, funded through a combination of state and federal grants, private donations, and landowner contributions, that pays eligible, agriculturally-zoned landowners for the development potential of their property in exchange for a permanent agricultural conservation easement recorded against the land.

As of recent reporting, the program has protected several hundred acres directly through county-negotiated PDR agreements (566 acres by one recent count) in addition to a larger acreage permanently preserved through separate State of Michigan farmland preservation programs (654 acres by the same count) -- meaningful progress against the scale of farmland loss the county is documenting, though a small fraction of the county's total agricultural land base.

How the PDR program actually works for a landowner

The PDR program is voluntary: a landowner with actively farmed, agriculturally-zoned property applies to sell the development rights on their land while retaining ownership and the majority of the rights that go with it -- they can keep farming, pass the land to heirs, or sell the land itself, but a permanent agricultural conservation easement recorded against the property restricts it from being subdivided or converted to non-agricultural development going forward, regardless of who owns it later. The county's Agricultural Preservation Board reviews and ranks applications using its own selection criteria, negotiates a purchase price for the development rights with the property owner, and monitors the resulting easement restrictions over time.

The practical entry point is a brief pre-application form submitted to the county's planning staff (plan@miottawa.org), with a full application cycle that has run with an April 30 deadline in recent years -- confirm the current year's specific deadline directly with the Agricultural Preservation Board rather than assuming it repeats exactly. The Board meets monthly or as needed at the Ottawa County Administration Building in West Olive (12220 Fillmore Street, (616) 738-4000).

If you're buying land that already carries a PDR easement

For a buyer, the mirror-image question matters just as much: if a parcel you're evaluating in Ottawa County has already been enrolled in the PDR program (or a separate state farmland preservation program) by a prior owner, the development-rights restriction transfers with the land -- it isn't tied to the person who sold the rights, and it doesn't expire on resale. That means the parcel is permanently restricted from subdivision and non-agricultural development regardless of what the current zoning otherwise allows, which can be a real plus if agricultural use is exactly what you want (often at a lower purchase price than unrestricted farmland nearby, since the development value has already been sold off) but a hard limit if your plan involves eventually subdividing or developing the property.

Before making an offer on Ottawa County farmland with any development potential in mind, ask directly (title search, seller disclosure, and the county's own Agricultural Preservation Board records) whether the parcel carries a recorded PDR easement or any other farmland preservation restriction -- this is exactly the kind of encumbrance that can be easy to miss in a straightforward property search but changes what the land can legally become.

Conservation Easements in Ottawa County: The Purchase of Development Rights Program

Why Ottawa County built its own farmland-preservation program

How the PDR program actually works for a landowner

If you're buying land that already carries a PDR easement

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