York County's Farmland Preservation Program, PA

York County runs one of the most successful county-level farmland preservation programs in the United States -- over 50,000 acres and counting, permanently protected from development. If you're evaluating agricultural land here, understanding how these easements work, and how to check if one already applies, is essential before you buy.

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

A program that has permanently changed the future of 50,000-plus acres

York County launched its Agricultural Land Preservation Program in 1990, working with farmers, developers, and environmental groups to slow the conversion of productive farmland to non-agricultural uses in one of Pennsylvania's most fertile agricultural counties. That effort has produced a genuinely remarkable result: the York County Agricultural Land Preservation Board has preserved just over 50,000 acres of farmland across roughly 354 farms, ranking the county third among all Pennsylvania counties and within the top 10 nationally for total preserved acreage. One family, the Barleys, has preserved more than 2,000 acres of its own land through the program -- more than any other single property owner in the county.

The legal foundation for this is Pennsylvania's Agricultural Area Security Law, Act 43 of 1981 (as amended in 1988), which requires each county to appoint an agricultural land preservation board to administer a county farmland-protection program. York County's board carries out that mandate specifically through the purchase of agricultural conservation easements -- a fundamentally different, and much more permanent, tool than ordinary agricultural zoning.

What an agricultural conservation easement actually does to a parcel

An agricultural conservation easement is the landowner's voluntary sale (or, separately, a donation to a private land trust) of the right to develop or improve the land for anything other than agricultural production. Once that easement is sold to the county or state Agricultural Land Preservation Board, the board holds the legal right to say no to development on that parcel -- permanently. York County's program describes these easements as being sold in perpetuity, meaning the restriction runs with the land forever, through every future sale and every future owner, not just for the term of the farmer who originally sold the easement.

This matters enormously for a land buyer evaluating what looks like an attractive, large agricultural tract: an enrolled parcel cannot be subdivided into house lots, developed into a subdivision, or converted to most non-farm commercial uses, regardless of what the local municipality's zoning ordinance otherwise allows or how that zoning might change in the future. Pursuant to state regulations, the York County board does retain some flexibility to approve limited non-agricultural commercial activity on a preserved farm on a case-by-case basis, but the core, permanent restriction against non-agricultural development and subdivision remains the defining feature of the program.

Eligibility, and how to check a specific parcel before you buy

Not every farm is eligible for the program, which is itself a useful thing to understand when evaluating land here. Under York County's guidelines, only farmland already enrolled in an Agricultural Security Area (ASA) and totaling at least 500 acres is eligible for consideration, and applications are qualified and ranked on a roughly 24-month cycle, with farms selected for appraisal and eventual easement purchase based on their score and the availability of program funding. This means a large working farm you're considering could plausibly still be in the pipeline toward preservation even if it isn't yet enrolled -- worth asking about directly if that matters to your plans for the land.

Before buying any substantial tract of York County farmland, confirm directly with the York County Agricultural Land Preservation Board whether the specific parcel already carries a recorded agricultural conservation easement, and if so, review the actual deed of easement -- these are individually negotiated documents that specify exactly what agricultural and limited non-agricultural uses remain permitted. A title search at the York County Recorder of Deeds will also show a recorded easement, since it's filed against the property just like any other permanent deed restriction. If your plans for a parcel involve eventual subdivision, non-farm construction, or a use beyond agriculture, an enrolled easement is not a minor restriction to work around -- it is likely the single most important fact about that property's future.

York County's Farmland Preservation Program: What Land Buyers Need to Know

A program that has permanently changed the future of 50,000-plus acres

What an agricultural conservation easement actually does to a parcel

Eligibility, and how to check a specific parcel before you buy

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