Berks County Farmland Easements: How the ACE Program Works

Berks County's Agricultural Land Preservation Board has been buying development rights off working farms since 1989, and crossed 80,000 preserved acres in June 2025 -- a genuinely large program by Pennsylvania standards. Here's how a farm actually gets into the program, how the payment is calculated, and what it means if you're evaluating a farm parcel that might already carry one of these easements.

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

A large, continuously funded program -- not a one-off pilot

The Berks County Agricultural Land Preservation Board (BCALPB), a nine-member board appointed by the county commissioners, has purchased agricultural conservation easements from willing farm owners every year since 1989. The program is funded jointly by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Berks County, and as of a June 2025 milestone announcement, it has permanently preserved more than 80,000 acres of farmland countywide -- one of the larger county-level totals in a state that itself leads the nation in preserved farm acreage. Individual settlements continue on an ongoing basis: recent rounds have preserved farms such as a 46-acre crop-and-livestock operation in Windsor Township (a combined state-and-county investment of $150,650) and a 152-acre cropland parcel in Lower Heidelberg Township ($431,531), figures that give a real sense of scale for what a per-farm payout in this program actually looks like.

Eligibility: what a farm actually needs to qualify

Before a farm can be considered for an ACE easement purchase, it has to first be enrolled in an Agricultural Security Area (ASA) -- a separate, prerequisite designation under Pennsylvania's ASA law that itself requires the property be at least 10 acres, be viable agricultural land (cropland, pasture, and woodland can all count toward it), have at least 50% of its soil in USDA/NRCS capability classes I-IV, and be zoned to permit agricultural use where the municipality has zoning. Once enrolled in an ASA, the separate ACE program layers on its own criteria: the property must contain at least 50% of its soils in capability classes I-IV, and it must contain the greater of 50% or 10 acres of actual harvested cropland, pasture, or grazing land -- meaning a farm that's mostly woodlot or is not being actively farmed may not qualify even if it clears the ASA bar. A landowner uncertain whether a specific parcel meets these thresholds should call the Berks County Agricultural Land Preservation Board directly at (610) 378-1844 rather than guessing from the criteria alone.

The annual cycle: apply by December 31, then get ranked

Applications are submitted to the Berks County Department of Agriculture office on a rolling annual basis with a December 31 deadline each year. There's no fee to apply, and applying carries no obligation to actually sell an easement if selected -- it's a voluntary program at every stage. Applications that clear the minimum eligibility criteria are then scored under the LESA (Land Evaluation and Site Assessment) ranking system, which awards points based on soil quality, development pressure facing the specific parcel, the farm's demonstrated productivity, and whether preserving it would help create a contiguous cluster of already-protected farmland nearby -- the county has an incentive to fund parcels that connect to or extend existing preserved blocks rather than isolated tracts. Selection each year then comes down to ranking order and how much funding the county actually has available that cycle, which means a well-qualified farm can still wait more than one application cycle if funding runs out before its turn.

How the payment is actually calculated

For each application selected off the ranked list, the county commissions an independent appraisal. That appraisal establishes two separate values for the farm: its open market value (what it would sell for with development potential intact) and its agricultural value (what it's worth restricted to farming only). The easement's purchase price is the difference between those two numbers -- in effect, the county and state are buying out the development value while leaving the farm itself, and full ownership of it, with the farmer. The county board reviews the appraisal and authorizes a specific per-acre offer, and payment at settlement is split between state and county funds (the exact split varies by round, as seen in the Windsor and Lower Heidelberg examples above, where state and county shares were roughly comparable in one case and heavily weighted toward the county in another).

What a recorded easement means if you're buying the farm later

An ACE easement is a permanent, recorded deed restriction -- it runs with the land forever, regardless of who owns the farm afterward, and it survives every future sale. In practice that means the farm cannot be subdivided for development, converted to non-agricultural use, or built out beyond what the recorded Deed of Easement specifically allows (Berks County's own template Deed of Easement spells out exactly what's reserved and what's restricted). If you're evaluating a large, open Berks County farm parcel that looks like a candidate for future subdivision or a non-farm build site, check the Recorder of Deeds directly, or search the county's own GIS-based Agricultural Conservation Easements dataset, before assuming the acreage is unrestricted -- a farm already enrolled through BCALPB will show a recorded easement that overrides whatever the current zoning or your own development plans might otherwise allow. The county's own "Selling a Preserved Farm" guidance is the right starting reference if you're specifically buying a farm you already know carries one of these easements.

Agricultural Conservation Easements in Berks County

A large, continuously funded program -- not a one-off pilot

Eligibility: what a farm actually needs to qualify

The annual cycle: apply by December 31, then get ranked

How the payment is actually calculated

What a recorded easement means if you're buying the farm later

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