ABSTRACT
The Vermont Legislature formed VHCB in 1987 for the purpose of creating affordable housing for Vermonters, and for conserving and protecting Vermont's agricultural land, historic properties, important natural areas, and recreational lands. The town of Swanton clearly illustrates VHCB's farmland conservation efforts. But Swanton farmland, like farmland throughout Vermont, faces threats from the encroachment of urban and suburban development. The Vermont Land Trust (VLT) helped complete the first farmland protection project in Swanton in 1989. By 1992, VHCB was considering several farm applications from Swanton at each of its biannual funding rounds. Most of these farms were located in a fertile plain southwest of Swanton village, and since several of the farms were contiguous to each other, the completed projects began to form a block of protected land. A VHCB grant to the VLT for the purchase of development rights brought the price within reach.
