The easement remains in force regardless of who owns the land.

McGinley said a conservation easement turned out to be the balance between his desire to preserve his parent’s vision and his fiscal responsibilities to the surviving McGinley family members.

“There are three fiscal benefits to a conservation easement,” he said. “The first, and most important, is that we remain the property’s owners. It’s still our asset. We can still sell it down the road.

“The second benefit comes from that,” he said. “If we sell it, we sell it at a retail price, not the wholesale price developers would offer.”

The third benefit, McGinley said, is tax relief. Land-use restrictions shift the land’s value. This, in many cases, can lead to a property tax reduction.

The three McGinley family members agreed that this was the way to go, Robert said. The Barrington Area Conservation Trust, he said, made it all possible.

The group pooled resources, including those of the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation, a similar organization that works to protect land on a regional level, to make the Horizon Farms preservation effort a reality, McGinley said.

“I don’t mind saying that my family was skeptical,” he said. “They were skeptical about the easement’s ability to provide these benefits. (Bradford-White) was instrumental in helping erase that skepticism. She brought in the right people, and we were able to come up with a strategy that meets our fiduciary responsibilities and also meets our desire to preserve open space.”

[next page] 1 2 3 4 [previous page]