WILLISTON -- Williston planners gave a preview Tuesday night of a tax plan designed to encourage good stewardship by landowners -- and to reward other residents with enduring, rural landscapes.

The plan would offer tax reductions of 30 to 85 percent on open land, productive farms and forests whose owners place them off-limits to subdivision or development for five or 10 years.

About 15 farmers and landowners joined the Williston Planning Commission for the unveiling of the plan-in-progress by outgoing conservation planner Carrie Deegan.

At the earliest, the program would take effect in July 2009.

Only parcels in agricultural/rural residential or medium density residential zoning districts would be eligible for tax relief. A scoring process would award points to tracts of land for their proximity to view sheds and conservation areas, access to trails and core forests.

Higher points values would be awarded by the Conservation Commission to working farms, sugar bushes and outdoor recreation facilities.

"We're looking for ways to keep significant portions of Williston in a working landscape," Deegan said. "This is just one of the ways we can help do that."

The details of financing and cost caps remain to be worked out, she said.

"We think it will be cost-effective," Planning Commission Chairman David Yandell said. "We have to remind ourselves to ask the question: How much money does it take the town to conserve land; and how much does it cost us to see it developed?"

The commission has a policy of exploring ways to reduce the town's capital and operating expenses for services provided to rural residential development -- which typically cost much more than services in more densely populated areas.

Yandell said the planning and conservation commissions would continue to refine the proposed program with landowners' help.

After the presentation, Bernie Comeau, who operates a sugar bush several hundred yards south of the village center, said he and his wife, Ann Comeau, planned to take the scoring system for a hypothetical test drive to see how it might benefit their property.

Other farmers followed suit.

For more information on upcoming meetings, call the Williston Planning and Zoning Office at 878-6704.

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