Conservation Easements

 Easements have become an increasingly popular legal tool for saving scenic land, historic sites and other cultural resources. Voluntarily given easements granted to qualified organizations in perpetuity offer protection for sites while allowing them to stay in private hands and creating a tax saving for the owners who give them.

As the idea of using easements to protect land has grown, Stites & Harbison has earned a reputation as a go-to firm for major conservation easements in Kentucky and Tennessee. The firm's attorneys have been front-and-center with approximately 20 major, record-breaking gifts, consulted on complex transactions and been invited to speak and publish on the sophisticated legal issues surrounding easements.

Our work in Tennessee

In Tennessee, Stites & Harbison has been selected as Counsel to the Land Trust for Tennessee, a non-profit group formed for the purpose of forever preserving farmland and open and scenic spaces in Tennessee. Working with Stites & Harbison, the Land Trust for Tennessee has accepted easements on more than 8,000 acres of land, including a recent contribution of an easement covering over 1,500 acres in Dickson County, Tenn., and easements protecting property in Williamson County, one of Tennessee's fastest growing counties.

Julian Bibb and Bryan Echols frequently write and speak on conservation easements for landowners, attorneys, appraisers and other professionals interested in supporting this means of protecting open space for future generations.  Click here to read our Tennessee Conservation Easement Law blog.

Our work in Kentucky

Nowhere has the firm's capabilities been more evident than with the work the firm's attorneys have done for River Fields, Inc., a Louisville-area land trust. The firm has drafted or negotiated five major easement agreements for River Fields, including the largest gifts ever made in Kentucky in terms of land area or value.

In 2000, the Henry F. Wallace family granted an easement on its 600-acre cattle farm to River Fields, Inc. Stites & Harbison's attorneys had prepared the easement agreement for the site, situated on the Ohio River several miles northeast of downtown Louisville, stopping development or other new construction on the land forever. The easement lowered the reported fair market value of the site by $8.12 million. The Wallace easement was believed to be the biggest such gift in Kentucky and one of the largest ever given in the nation.

The next year, the firm helped River Fields negotiate three gifts in Oldham County, Kentucky, comprising the largest aggregate land area in that county ever protected through conservation easement donations. Another notable conservation easement on which Stites & Harbison worked was one given by author Sallie Bingham on an historic 412-acre site near Louisville and reported to be worth $4.68 million.

The firm has also reviewed nine easement agreements for The Bluegrass Conservancy, including an agreement granted by former Kentucky Gov. Brereton Jones and his wife, Libby Jones, which governs the 236-acre Aidrie Stud farm in Woodford County, Ky.

Several of the firm's attorneys have written or presented papers on easements or related subjects. Robert Griffith participated on a panel May 10, 2001, which focused on the use of conservation easements in Kentucky. The Jefferson County Environmental Trust, River Fields, Preservation Kentucky and Stites & Harbison co-sponsored the all-day program. Bruce Reynolds and Stephen M. Ruschell—two of the firm's Lexington-based attorneys—wrote "Conservation Easements and Their Qualifications for Tax Benefits," which was published in the Kentucky Bar Association's July 2001 edition of Bench & Bar.