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.~ - , --., . Identification of preservation areas on a community-wide basis, such as the greenway corridor, Wild and Scenic Rivers Area or Mississippi River Critical Area. Conservation Easements Conservation easements are the voluntary transfer of specified development and land use rights from a landowner to a qualifying organization such as a public body or non-profit agency. Conservation easements can be in the form of permanent easements (lasting forever) or "term" easements (lasting for a period of time at which the land use may be changed). Conservation easements in Ramsey should be used to. protect natural resources or to permanently preserve areas of the greenway corridor. Transfer of Development Rights Transfer of development rights allows landowners who may wish to preserve their lands to still receive a profit from the sale of development rights. The purchaser of the development rights would then be able to develop at greater densities. This technique requires the community to establish (on a community wide basis) sending zones, which are areas the community wishes to preserve and receiving zones, which are areas that are most easily served by utilities and are the most logical growth expansion areas. Examples of sending zones may include lands within the greenway corridor, lands identified as containing significant natural resources or lands within the Mississippi River Critical Area corridor. Receiving zones may be located where utilities are readily available or could be easily extended or possibly within the existing MUSA area. Purchase of Development Rights Purchase of development rights (PDR) operates basically the same way as in the TOR program except instead of transferring development rights, the development rights are basically retired or lost. Development right's are typically purchased by the government or non-profit organizations and the land is put into a permanent conservation easement. This program is more of a tool to reduce total growth and can potentially lead to sprawl or leap frog development when areas adjacent to urban services loose their development rights. This program should be used carefully. Residential lands within the Mississippi River Critical Area may be good candidates for the PDR program. Preferential Taxation Preferential taxation can be used to protect wetlands, agricultural lands or open space. Several of these programs currently exist such as the Agricultural Preserves and Green Acres program, which provide tax breaks for agricultural uses and the Wetland Tax Exemption program which exempts wetland areas from property tax assessments. The purpose for preferential taxation programs is to level the playing field by acknowledging the land's actual use rather than a market value based approach on uses to which the landowner has no intention of putting the land. Property Acquisition Property acquisition is probably the simplest form of open space preservation to understand in that it simply means the public buys the land. This technique gives I