Topic
Conservation Easements
399 published works
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
Mitchell v. Commissioner—10th Circuit Affirms Tax Court, Mortgages Must Be Subordinated When Conservation Easement is Donated
In Mitchell v. Commissioner, _ F.3d _ (10th Cir. 2015), the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Tax Court’s holding that, to be eligible for a deduction for the…
Land Use Prof Blog
10th Circuit Disallows Conservation Easement Deduction Where Mortgage Not Subordinated at Time of Donation
Yesterday, the Tenth Circuit issued its opinion in Mitchell v. CIR, 2015 WL 64927 (10th Cir. 2015).The background: The Mitchells purchased a 105-acre ranch in Colorado in 1998 and an…
Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
Columbia Land Trust Purchases 3,000 Acres
In 2013, Columbia Land Trust purchased around 2,300 acres of land near Mount St. Helens. On Monday, the nonprofit organization announced a conservation easement and purchase that will secure another…
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
Belk v. Commissioner—4th Circuit Confirms That Swappable Conservation Easements Are Not Deductible
In Belk v. Commissioner, No. 13-2161 (Dec. 16, 2014), the 4th Circuit affirmed a Tax Court ruling that a conservation easement that authorized the parties to agree to “substitutions” or…
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
Maryland Appellate Court Upholds Conservation Easement
After a nod to private property rights, in McClure v. Montgomery County Planning Board, _ A.3d _ 2014, Maryland’s intermediate appellate court held that the owner of a subdivision lot…
Administrative and Regulatory
Appellate Court Rejects Challenge to Use of Categorical Exemption for Conservation Easement over Hunting Club Property
In an unpublished opinion in Paulek v. Department of Fish & Game, 2014 Cal. App Unpub. LEXIS 7710, the Court of Appeal for the Fourth District affirmed the trial court’s…
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
IRS on Conservation Easement Appraisals
On September 4, 2014, I attended an excellent conference on the valuation of conservation easements in Sioux Falls, SD, sponsored by the North Star Chapter of the Appraisal Institute. The…
PropertyProf Blog
Phelps on Preservation Easements and Historic Religious Architecture
Jess Phelps (USDA) has posted 'Scarcely a Vestige of Antiquity Remains': Evaluating the Role of Preservation Easements in Protecting Historic Religious Architecture (Environmental Law Reporter) on SSRN. Here's the abstract:Preservation…
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
Maryland Land Trust and Attorney General Enforce a Conservation Easement
Maryland Environmental Trust (MET), one of the oldest and largest land trusts in the country, with the assistance of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, recently settled a suit enforcing a…
Nonprofit Law Prof Blog
Maine Supreme Judicial Court Holds that Conservation Lands Open to the Public are Exempt from Property Tax
In Francis Small Heritage Trust, Inc. v. Town of Limington, 2014 Me. 102 (Aug. 7, 2014), the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that conservation lands owned in fee by a charitable…