Vicksburg couple makes largest ever donation of Michigan agricultural property for conservation  

The large-tract housing developers encroaching on agricultural property outside Vicksburg won’t be allowed to build on 906 acres owned by Robert and Regina Richardson. Property that has been in the family for seven generations will be preserved as farmland through a donation to the State of Michigan. To date, it is the largest donation of prime farmland development rights to the state.The donation, made through the state’s permanent conservation easement program, keeps property from being used for residential development.The program allows the development rights for the property to go to the State of Michigan. In return, farmers get local and federal tax breaks. The land can be written off as a charitable donation to lower federal taxes. And local taxes go down because they are based on the property being used as farmland. Taxes are higher on land that can be developed as subdivisions or for other residential uses.To develop the property for residential use would require going to court to overturn the easement, says Elizabeth Juris, of the Michigan Department of Agriculture.The Richardson’s farm is about 2.5 miles outside the Village of Vicksburg, where people are buying up 40 acre pieces of property and putting a house in the middle of it, Juris says. The state program is designed to head off such practices.The Richardson’s 906 acres is 80 percent farmland used for wheat, soybeans and corn planted in rotation. The remaining 20 percent is wooded property along the Portage River and Portage Creek.  The State of Michigan will publicly thank the Richardsons for their donation in a special ceremony April 30 at the farm, 16611 S. 24th St. Vicksburg.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Elizabeth Juris, Michigan Department of Agriculture