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December 26, 2003Peninsula farmland is forever preservedPDR program helped shield the two farmsByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Two farms on the Old Mission Peninsula have been protected from development in a deal announced this week. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Peninsula Township purchased development rights to 141 acres of farmland. That means the land will remain in private hands to be farmed but cannot be subdivided and developed. The purchases included the 81-acre Goodman/Kramer Farm at the intersection of Center and Gray roads and 60 acres of the Ayers Farm at the northern tip of the peninsula. The purchases were made possible in part by township voter approval of a millage increase in November 2002 for its purchase-of-development rights. Rick Wilson, coordinator of the conservancy's farmland protection efforts, said the Goodman/Kramer Farm was used as a "poster farm" for the 2002 millage because of its Grand Traverse Bay views and agricultural vistas. Some of the property at the Ayers Farm, located near Prescott Lake, was sold by the family to meet estate tax burdens, Wilson said. But 48 acres of unique farm and forest land and 12 acres with 1,100 feet of natural shoreline on the lake will be preserved, Wilson said. Supporters of the 2002 millage request said they hoped to save 3,200 acres of farmland. Before the 2002 proposal, farmland preservation efforts on the peninsula had protected about 3,000 acres of farmland.
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