OCR Text |
Show which should expire after a reasonable period of time. We believe that implementation of our recommendation that public lands generally be disposed of at fair-market value will discourage undue speculation. However, we recognize that with increased competition for available lands, reasonable expectations of enhanced land values cannot, and perhaps should not, be discouraged. Nevertheless, with respect to the disposal of land for intensive agricultural or grazing purposes, the relatively low prices likely to be paid for such land may generate more than normal speculative interest. In such cases, we recommend that disposals be on condition that the land be used for such purposes for a relatively short period of time, such as 5 years, subject to a possibility of re-verter for breach of that requirement. As to lands transferred for less than fair-market value (generally transfers to state and local governmental units or non-profit entities performing quasi-governmental functions), we recommend that such transfers be subject to the possibility of reverting to the United States for changes in specified uses, unless the grantee elects to pay the difference between the purchase price and the market value of the land if it is devoted to another use. This possibility of re-verter should be for a reasonable period of time, say 20 years. Restrictions which run in perpetuity have resulted in an unnecessary rigidity in the use of the land and have prevented changes to higher and better uses made possible by new circumstances. They have also placed an unnecessary and continuing burden of enforcement on the Federal Government, which has often been unable to exercise such enforcement effectively, if at all. Restrictions that apply only for a reasonable length of time should be adequate to prevent speculation or diversion of land uses detrimental to the public interest, while permitting local communities and states an opportunity to exercise continuing control over use changes by the adoption of suitable planning and zoning measures. Pre-Disposal Conditions Recommendation 117: Public lands generally should not be disposed of in an area unless adequate state or local zoning is in effect. In the absence of such zoning, and where disposal is otherwise desirable, covenants in Federal deeds should be used to protect public values. As we point out in Chapter Three and elsewhere, we endorse the concept that the land use planning 266 programs of the public land management agencies, including the strengthened withdrawal review program we recommend, should include a classification effort designed to identify those public lawds that should be made available for disposal. While public lands should be classified as chiefly valuable for particular purposes and therefore subject to disposal, it is not intended that such classifications will generally impose restrictions on future use after disposal. We endorse the general principle, contained in the temporary Public Land Sale Act of 1964,2 which bars sales under that act until zoning regulations have been enacted by appropriate local authority, and recommend that it be extended generally to all Federal land disposals. This recognizes that control over uses of privately owned land is properly a state or local responsibility. The response of state and local governments in adopting zoning regulations required by that Act generally has not been good. We, therefore, favor providing a specific time period within which the appropriate authorities must act. If they fail to, the Federal agencies should be authorized to make the requested disposal if it is otherwise appropriate. However, the agencies should be directed to include covenants in the patent, designed to serve the same protective function of the site and nearby land as state or local zoning. Of course, the views of state or local governmental authorities should be solicited and considered, even where no zoning has occurred. Such covenants should be terminated upon the adoption of adequate zoning regulations applicable to such lands by the appropriate authority. Covenants Designed to Protect Federal Interests Recommendation 118: Protective covenants should be included in Federal deeds to preserve important environmental values on public lands in certain situations, even where state or local zoning is in effect. In addition to the use of covenants in Federal patents designed to protect important values in areas where state or local zoning has not yet been implemented, we recommend the use of such covenants to protect important values on public lands in the vicinity of such disposals. Proper use of land sold by the Federal Government is also a matter of environmental concern to Federal agencies with land-holdings in the area. Thus, if disposals are made in areas adjacent to a unit of the National Park System, or an area which has been retained and set aside for another important public value (i.e., watershed protection or scenic preservation), the patents should 2 43 U.S.C. §§ 1421-1427 (1964), as amended, (Supp. IV, 1969). |