Farmland Protection (continued) The land has been taken off the market, permanently. It can never be bought or sold again. It can only be leased, and only by a farmer who commits to farming it. The lease is lifelong and inheritable, and the fee is based on the agricultural value of the land, not the market value. Farmland preservation, like all land preservation, protects open land from development. But conventionally protected land is often leased for the short term to farmers desperate for land by second home owners interested in a tax break. The farmers can't afford to invest time or money in land they don't own, so the soil gets used up. But Roxbury is protected as farmland. Even in the rapidly rising country home market of Columbia County, two and a half hours from New York City, this land will always be available and affordable to a farmer. Our farmers, Jean-Paul Courtens and Jody Bolluyt, are the first to have the right to live on the farm and to farm it. If, at any time in the future, Jean-Paul and Jody or his descendants stop farming, the land will be leased to a new farmer. Equity Trust holds the deed and the lease to the land. The members of Roxbury Farm CSA conducted a Capital Campaign and successfully raised the funds to pay for the land. Several other organizations are involved in the project: Columbia Land Conservancy, who provided the vision to protect a large corridor of land along the Kinderhook Creek. Open Space Institute bought the development rights to the Roxbury Farm land and neighboring farmland to realize the long-term vision of protecting over 1,000 acres along the Kinderhook Creek. Roxbury also farms the land originally owned by Martin Van Buren right next to Lindenwald, the Martin van Buren National Historic Site. Return to Home Page.