When and where do I vote?

You vote on November 5 alongside votes for the presidential and other state elections. This ballot initiative is the only one in the "Township" section, on the back side of your ballot. Don't forget to flip it over!

About The Program

After the successful vote, the township Board of Trustees appointed a seven-member Farmland and Open Space Preservation Board to implement the program. They work to educate landowners, attract applications, apply for matching funds and bring land preservation projects to fruition.

In all of the township-led projects, millage funds have been used to purchase the landowner’s ability to divide the property into smaller parcels for residential development. We call this purchasing development rights, or PDR. In exchange for payment, landowners sign a permanent deed restriction called a conservation easement that is recorded at the Washtenaw County Register of Deeds and runs with the property in perpetuity. Conservation easements also limit or prohibit the ability to create gravel pits, alter wetlands, accumulate refuse and other actions that would harm the property’s conservation values.

Because of this program, Ann Arbor Township has established itself as the leader in farmland preservation and new farm business development in southeast Michigan. The township envisions being the focal point of a new farm paradigm, where not only is farmland permanently protected from conversion but also where the essential shift from food imports to local food production can thrive.

More importantly, there has been a dramatic shift in the attitudes of farmers and farmland owners in Ann Arbor Township. Some development rights sellers purchased other farmland, while others invested in their farming operations. Gone are the days when agriculture was considered to be a dying industry and the land base merely a holding area for future housing developments.

What's been done so far? 

• The program has conserved nearly 1,300 acres of land. This land will stay green forever, and never be developed. 

• The first completed project was in November 2006 on the Kapp farm, located on Nixon Road. The Kapp family farm was acquired in 1931, the year prominently displayed on their historic barn. The Kapps ran a dairy operation from 1935 to 1995 and now raise commodity grain crops. Through the preservation program, 148 acres were protected, including crop and pasture lands, woods and wetlands along with the historic farmhouse and barn.

• Almost $4 million of township millage funds have been expended to protect land in Ann Arbor Township, while more than twice that amount has been matched by other sources. That means every dollar that Ann Arbor Township taxpayers provide towards the program is leveraged 2 to 3 times by  other local, state, and federal land preservation programs. 

• About 45% of the protected lands are natural features (woods, wetlands, streams). 

Current state of protected land in Ann Arbor Township

This map shows: 1) areas with cross-hatch markings, which are properties protected by township PDR funds; 2) solid colored areas are land protected by other means, and 3) unprotected lands (in white.)