A tax break designed to protect land has become just another massive tax loophole. It looks like conservation easements are here to stay.

Peter Elkind reports on the details of an underappreciated mechanism of the U.S. tax structure that relates to land use, i.e., conservation easements.
The idea seems like the perfect marriage of environmentalism and capitalism: Landowners give up their right to develop a piece of property, and in exchange they receive a special tax deduction. Nature is preserved and everybody benefits.
According to Elkind, conservation easements worked in many examples, but at some point conservation easements became motivated more by commercial reward than for any concern about the natural environment. Elkind recounts the story of the former Millstone Golf Course outside of Greenville, South Carolina, closed in 2006 and dormant until 2016.
Later in 2016, however, a pair of promoters appeared. They gathered investors who purchased the same parcel at the market price and, with the help of a private appraiser, declared it to be worth $41 million, nearly eight times its purchase price. Why? Because with that new valuation and a bit of paperwork, the investors were suddenly able to claim a tax deduction of $4 for each $1 they invested.
According to Elkind, those kinds of transactions have transformed conservation easements into the "single most generous charitable deduction in the tax code." If you're wondering whether it survived the Republican tax reform bill signed recently by the president, it did, according to Elkind. Moreover, President Trump has a long history of building tax shelters by using conservation easements.
The article includes a lot more examples and explanations to describe the tax shelter conservation easements have become.
FULL STORY: The Billion-Dollar Loophole

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

USGS Water Science Centers Targeted for Closure
If their work is suspended, states could lose a valuable resource for monitoring, understanding, and managing water resources.

Congress Moves to End Reconnecting Communities and Related Grants
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved to rescind funding for the Neighborhood Equity and Access program, which funds highway removals, freeway caps, transit projects, pedestrian infrastructure, and more.

Integrating Human Rights Into Energy and Extractive Sector Transitions
Why just transition efforts must move beyond economic considerations by embedding human rights principles into business practices to ensure equitable, transparent, and accountable outcomes for affected communities and workers.

Blocked, Restored, Blocked Again — Housing Funds in Legal Limbo
Since Trump took office, the administration has blocked multiple affordable housing funding streams. Here's a look at which funds have been frozen, which have been reinstated, and which are in the courts.

Mapping Groundwater Risks from Orphan Wells Across U.S. Aquifers
A new USGS study reveals that more than half of the nation’s documented orphan wells lie within aquifers supplying the vast majority of U.S. groundwater, posing widespread risks of contamination from aging, unplugged infrastructure.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
Tyler Technologies
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions