Monday, February 26, 2007

Developer donates land for open space in Bucks

Richard Zaveta, who runs Zaveta Construction Co. and lives on a 146-acre farm off Perry Auger Road in Tinicum Township, has agreed to donate a conservation easement to his land.

The deal means he still owns the land, but gives up any right he or future owners have to develop it. The easement is appraised at about $14,000 per acre, officials said, or a little more than $2 million overall.

He said it's important to preserve increasingly scarce farmland in the area; he also said his company has worked on several building projects recently that have developed less land than they could have by using larger lots and other methods.

Bucks County's government has spent years trying to conserve farms. Thus far, more than 9,000 agricultural acres have been preserved.

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