The Anne Arundel County Council has approved development easements for four family farms in the southern part of the county. Three properties are in Lothian and one is in West River; together, they push the county's total preserved farmland past 15,000 acres toward its long-standing goal of protecting 20,000 acres.
Anne Arundel has pursued the 20,000-acre target since the 1990s, according to The Baltimore Banner. The newly approved easements were sold to the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation, a state program that works with county governments. The agreements allow the owners to continue living on and using their land while permanently surrendering the right to develop it.
The three Lothian farms measure 64.6 acres, 55 acres and 110.5 acres, while the West River property covers 60 acres, per the same report. A farm topping 100 acres is notably uncommon in Anne Arundel County these days, where the median farm size has shrunk to just 25 acres as older properties get carved into smaller plots.
How the Easement Deals Work
An easement preserves the land without transferring full ownership. Under these agreements, the owners sell their development rights in perpetuity while retaining the property and its agricultural use. The arrangement can also provide landowners with financial value before they transfer the farm to the next generation, according to the Banner's reporting.
The four easements are expected to cost about $3 million total, with the state covering roughly $2 million and the county paying about $1 million. The county's Office of Planning and Zoning has already approved the capital budget funding, and officials say the easements will not require any additional money from Anne Arundel County beyond what's already been budgeted. These deals can also take years to negotiate between the county and individual landowners, the outlet notes.
Why Preserved Farmland Saves Money Too
County Executive Steuart Pittman has framed the easements as smart fiscal policy as much as land conservation, saying they're a cost-effective way to preserve green space. That's partly because less-dense, rural areas require fewer police officers and firefighters, and many rural properties simply lack county water or sewer hookups altogether, according to the Banner's account of county reasoning.
The county's broader land-use vision, laid out in its Plan2040 General Development Plan, identifies farms and rural landscapes among the features officials intend to value, promote and protect, alongside the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers, according to Anne Arundel County. The plan was adopted in May 2021 and took effect that June, and the county's most recent annual progress report on it draws from 2025 data.
A broader rural-preservation framework
County records show that Anne Arundel's Anne Arundel South Rural Legacy Area covers 37,381 acres south of Central Avenue between the Patuxent and Rhode rivers. The county also reports that, as of June 30, 2026, more than 6,800 acres had been preserved through its agricultural and woodland preservation program, more than 6,000 acres through Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation easements and more than 2,000 acres through Rural Legacy, according to Anne Arundel County's Agricultural & Woodland Preservation Program. Plan2040 identifies protecting greenways, open space and rural areas, including the Priority Preservation Area, as a countywide goal.
The Hard Part Still Lies Ahead
The county's next challenge is finding another 5,000 acres, Pittman said, according to the Banner's reporting. He acknowledged that opportunities are becoming scarcer as older farms are divided into smaller parcels, a trend reflected in the county's shrinking median farm size.
For now, the four newly protected properties in Lothian and West River stand as the county's latest wins in a decades-long push. Whether Anne Arundel can close that remaining 5,000-acre gap will likely depend on convincing more landowners that an easement is worth more than a subdivision.
