The Advertiser ‘got it glaringly wrong'

To the editor: I was startled to see the headline “Warwick purchases 186-acre Brady Farm” in last week’s Advertiser; the subhead was equally startling: “Property, costing $2.1 million, becomes 10th bought for its development rights.” My head spun. Where did the town get that money and why did they buy a whole farm just to gain development rights? Reading further, I realized that whoever had written the headline did not write the article - and had not read it carefully. The article itself stated that only development rights - that is, a conservation easement, had been purchased and at that, the town had contributed a small portion of the total cost stated in the headline. I am amazed that years after the local passage of the PDR (purchase of development rights) bond issue, there is still so little understanding of what the basic principle of buying development rights is about, that even the editorial staff of The Advertiser got it glaringly wrong. It therefore deserves saying again: The purchase of development rights, usually secured through a conservation easement, pays the land owner to put a legal covenant on his/her property title which ensures that the property will not be developed any further than it is at the time of the agreement, except for replacement buildings and other minor exclusions. As a legal part of the title, this becomes permanent. PDR and conservation easements are the only hope for Warwick to maintain open spaces and preserve our current rural quality of life. We should fully understand the mechanisms though which we can preserve our environment and our life styles to preclude further confusion and misunderstandings. Valerie Lucznikowska Warwick Conservancy Advisor