West Newbury Open Space Committee Hosts Conservation Workshop for Landowners

WEST NEWBURY — January 28, 2026 — West Newbury Open Space Committee convened a public workshop to help local landowners permanently protect their properties from development. Committee Chair Carol Decker and member Patricia Reeser organized the January 28 event in partnership with Essex County Greenbelt Association, which has preserved more than 22,600 acres across Essex County since 1961. Vanessa Johnson-Hall, Greenbelt's Director of Land Conservation, outlined two primary conservation tools — conservation restrictions and outright land donations — and described tax incentives including a deduction of up to 50 percent of adjusted gross income per year for 16 years for conservation restriction donors, and a refundable $75,000 Massachusetts Conservation Land Tax Credit for donations of at least $150,000 in conservation value, currently subject to a two-to-three-year wait list. Real estate appraiser Jim Monahan of Landvest walked attendees through a 156-acre North Shore farm case study in which 100 percent of pre-restriction property value was preserved through a combination of state-funded development-right purchases and reserved family building envelopes. Probate attorney Peter Bernardin of the Bernardin Law Firm noted that the Massachusetts estate tax exemption remains $2 million per individual and described how a conservation restriction helped one elderly farmer reduce his estate below the filing threshold while guaranteeing the land would remain farmable.