Landowner Case Study: Wade and Carolyn Penny

Summary

• Project: Penny Property
• Landowners: Wade and Carolyn Penny
• Transaction: Bargain sale, easement, and transfer
• Acres: 22
• County: Orange
• Conservation Values for TLC: Adds to open space in the New Hope Creek priority area; protects drinking water quality; and contributes to a green space corridor
• Landowner Goals Met: Desire to leverage the sale of their land to protect an even larger area for future generations to enjoy

Background To protect the land you love, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Wade and Carolyn Penny know from firsthand experience that offering local governments a land deal they couldn't refuse resulted in a significant victory for land conservation, right in their backyard.

Wade and Carolyn Penny rest atop “Hanging Rock,” with New Hope Creek behind them, on the property they sold in June.

In early 2005, a developer contracted to buy 43 acres of Duke Forest adjacent to the Pennys' property, a total of 57 acres along Pickett Road on the Orange County side of the Orange-Durham County line. The Penny family had a long history of enjoying and sharing this green space, which includes beautiful places to walk along New Hope Creek, and wanted to make sure their land and the surrounding area would be protected from development.

"It's such a privilege to live here and enjoy the land, and we wanted to protect it for future generations," Wade Penny says. Selling the land for conservation made perfect sense and was an easy decision for the Pennys. The trick was to find a way to protect the surrounding area in Duke Forest at the same time, to help protect water quality and add to a planned green space corridor between the Forest and Jordan Lake.

The Strategy

A year’s worth of strategizing, fundraising and deal-making spearheaded by the Erwin Area Neighborhood Group (of which the Pennys are members), spawned a brilliant proactive conservation strategy: the Pennys would offer some of their land as an incentive that local governments couldn’t refuse.

In June 2006, the Pennys sold 22.37 acres of their land in Orange County to TLC for a bargain price of $5,500 per acre. (Land in this area typically sells for more than $20,000 per acre.) The sale was contingent upon Durham and Orange Counties, along with Chapel Hill Town Council and Durham City Council, buying and protecting the 43 threatened acres in Duke Forest, which they did with funding from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund. All four local governments had identified the Pennys’ land as a conservation priority in the New Hope Creek Corridor Open Space Master Plan—which is why the Pennys’ bargain sale offer clinched the deal.

After purchasing the Pennys’ land, TLC in turn sold a conservation easement on 20.14 of those acres to the NC Ecosystem Enhancement Program for $110,770. The easement covers 300-foot buffers on New Hope Creek and a direct New Hope tributary that bisects the tract. Finally, TLC sold all 22.37 acres to Orange County.

“This was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had in local government,” says Wade Penny. "TLC was instrumental in helping us and the Erwin Area Neighborhood Group (EANG) argue our case before local governments."

The Results

All the newly protected acreage will become part of an open space corridor that will eventually run along New Hope Creek from Duke Forest to Jordan Lake. The deal is also significant for water quality protection, as well as habitat preservation for the bobcats, turkeys, and other wildlife that live on the land.

And, continuing with the Pennys' practice of sharing their land with the community, the public will now have access to their property, which includes scenic New Hope Creek locations such as "Hanging Rock," a former campsite for Native Americans and a tranquil place to rest and reflect. The Pennys also plan to place conservation easements on their remaining 37 acres.