With his 19-year-old son watching on, Matt Balliet signed paperwork Tuesday agreeing to keep his 54-acre Butler Township property as a farm in perpetuity.
His great-great grandfather, William Saams, had purchased the tract for farming on March 27, 1880. Balliet’s son, Jacob, already agreed to carry on the family tradition at Balliet Farm on Saams Road.
“He’s generation six,” Balliet said with pride.
Balliet Farm is the 37th farm to be protected from development under Luzerne County’s Farmland Preservation Program, which was implemented in 2000.
The program preserves active farms and prevents them from being used for any purpose other than agriculture and related activities. Participating farms are compensated in exchange for a conservation easement that remains tied to the property if it ever changes hands, officials said. Funding for the program primarily comes from the state.
Balliet said he promised his late uncle, Thomas Schaeffer, he would continue farming at the site to preserve the land for the next generation. He grows grain and has beef cattle at the site, with meat available through a processing plant the family operates in Bloomsburg.
The township is under intense residential development pressure, and Balliet said he has rejected a steady stream of offers to purchase his land for housing.
Based on appraisals, Balliet received $187,530 in exchange for the permanent farming easement, said county Planning/Zoning Director Matthew Jones.
Jones said the county has become attractive to developers because several key highways and interstates pass through it. Balliet Farm is near both Interstates 80 and 81.
“For years, the Balliet Farm has served as a source of local beef products,” Jones said. “Through participating in this program, Mr. Balliet is promising his land will remain a farm forever rather than become another subdivision.”
Because the demand for preservation exceeds available funding, there are currently 22 more farms on the waiting list to participate in the program, Jones said. Five of these have been selected to be pursued next by the county’s Farmland Preservation Board — a council-appointed body that oversees the program, he said.
Balliet said he applied for the program in 2018.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said of his farm’s inclusion in the program.
Applications are scored and ranked, and farms with high soil quality and development pressure rise to the top, said Farmland Preservation Board Chairwoman Linda Thoma.
Thoma said Tuesday’s addition of Balliet Farm was particularly meaningful because she and Balliet were among the citizens who banded together in 1997 to urge prior county commissioners to form the board and participate in the agricultural preservation program.
“It is a special day for the two of us. I’m thrilled for him,” Thoma said.