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The Daily Signal
Green Group
Under Scrutiny for Trespassing, Harassment at Woman’s Farm
Kevin Mooney
July 24, 2014
Robert Marmet knew he was supposed to inspect Martha Boneta’s farm, but
he didn’t know exactly what for. He knew there were limits on what he
could inspect, but he had no idea where they were.
So when Marmet, a senior energy policy analyst with the Piedmont
Environmental Council, and his partner Mike Kane, a conservation
officer with the group, turned up June 12 to inspect Boneta’s Liberty
Farm in Paris, Va., they more or less inspected what they wanted to
inspect.
They walked through the upstairs and downstairs portion of the barn
that sits on the property. They inspected every room within—bathrooms,
closets, storage rooms and offices. They looked over the farmer’s
personal effects and even toured the basement area of the barn that
housed some of the animals. They inspected “The Smithy,” an historical
structure on the property that was once a blacksmith shop. They stood
on chairs to peer into the loft area.
Martha Boneta’s farm is subject to regular and rigorous inspections —
some say too rigorous — by an environmental group that enforces her
easement.
What were they looking for? They were there on behalf of the PEC to
enforce an easement on Boneta’s property. Easements are documents
property owners sign that compensate them for agreeing to withhold land
from commercial development. In Boneta’s case, the PEC accused her in a
previous lawsuit of violating the agreement in a number of ways, the
main one of which was to operate apartments on the property.
An agreement to settle that suit required PEC to acknowledge the
accusation was false and Boneta did not have apartments on the
property, but it permitted PEC to “measure for the size of an
apartment.” This inspection obviously went far beyond that.
Boneta claims in a lawsuit filed last month in Fauquier County Circuit
Court the inspections are part of a pattern of harassment. Her case
accuses Peter Schwartz, a member of the elected Fauquier County Board
of Supervisors and former member of the PEC board of directors, of,
among other things, telling zoning officials he wants the rules
“aggressively enforced” with regard to the farm.
She also claims PEC should not be allowed to be involved in the
enforcement of the easement. She said before the PEC sold her the farm
in 2006, it owned both the property and the easement, which is illegal
under Virginia law.
Almost all property owners with easements must endure routine
inspections by the land conservancies or other organizations that
enforce the easements. Usually, they are low-key and friendly.
Landowners are apprised of violations, and the sides work together to
address them.
This is not the case with Martha Boneta. A lawsuit Boneta filed seeks
to halt invasive inspections of her farm by the Piedmont Environmental
Council.
She told Marmet and Kane when they entered her property in June they
could inspect only what the easement language allows. “It’s very
clear,” she said. And if they “exceed what the language says, it is
considered trespassing. In the past, you have demanded to inspect my
closets and have photographed my personal private possessions, and this
exceeds your authority.”
Marmet replied that, yes, he is an attorney—and a former judge,
according to his bio on the PEC website—but he is not licensed to
practice law in Virginia and is not familiar with the terms of the
easement. If he was about to violate any of its terms, he told Boneta,
“I ask that you give me notice.”
At which point, Mark Fitzgibbons, an attorney and neighbor who has
supported legislation to protect traditional farming practices from
intrusive zoning rules, stepped in. “The PEC has been placed on
notice,” Fitzgibbons told Marmet. “The obligation is on you, not Martha
Boneta, to know what the easement terms are.”
Fitzgibbons told The Daily Signal the inspections have gotten out of
hand. “From what I’ve observed, these inspections are being conducted
with an agenda greater than ensuring fidelity to the easement,” he said.
It does seem to me the PEC has crossed a line. They
are going anywhere and everywhere across Martha’s property, and it does
seem excessive. So, either they do not know what the easement terms
really say, or they do know and are pushing boundaries of their
easement authority. Also, if the terms of easement are vague, they are
to be construed against the inspector, which opens the issue of
trespassing.
Fitzgibbons is not alone in thinking the PEC has gone too far with its
handling of Boneta. Several recent events suggest frustration with the
organization and what many view as its heavy-handed tactics may be
reaching critical mass.
There is Boneta’s lawsuit, in which she claims the PEC “attempted to
convince the [county] zoning administrator and other local government
officials” to issue zoning citations against her farm—and plenty of
email and written correspondence obtained through Freedom of
Information Act requests to support her version.
There is something called the Boneta Bill, signed into law by Terry
McAuliffe, Virginia’s Democratic governor, and effective July 1. The
legislation, which prevents local authorities from requiring
special-use permits for conventional farming activities outlined in the
law, proves members of Virginia’s General Assembly recognize the
problem and have sympathy for Boneta.
The ‘Boneta Bill,” which became law in Virginia on July 1, allows
farmers to engage in farming activities, such as beekeeping, regardless
of easements.
And there is the audit of Boneta’s 2010 and 2011 tax records that some
suggest may amount to using the IRS against Boneta. A former IRS
director sits on PEC’s board.
Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, a non-profit,
free-enterprise group based in Virginia, is circulating a petition that
calls on House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders to
investigate the PEC, its relationship with the county government and
the actions the group has taken against Liberty Farm.
DeWeese said the documents reveal Schwartz, the county supervisor, knew
about Boneta’s audit before she received the notice in the mail, and
Fitzgibbons said he learned of the audit during a meeting with Schwartz
in the supervisor’s private home on July 21, 2012—a few days before
Boneta received her IRS letter.
“Martha [Boneta] stood up and resisted, and so now she is being
targeted,” DeWeese said in an interview. “But this is not just Fauquier
County. We see this happening all over the country. The PEC is one of
many quasi groups operating behind the scenes. There are hundreds,
perhaps thousands of green groups just like the PEC pulling the strings
of government.”
DeWeese also said he is talking to state lawmakers about placing a
“five-year opt out” provision on easements that would give property
owners some flexibility.
“Right now the easements exist in perpetuity, and this is a problem
because there is no real oversight for how they are managed,” DeWeese
said. “The PEC can move the easements around to the government and
other land trusts, and it’s a profit for them. But the landowner is
stuck forever with the easement.”
If there is a congressional investigation, DeWeese would like to see
the PEC’s non-profit 501(c)(3) status come under scrutiny.
“The PEC was given an IRS designation as a non-profit educational
institution and this comes with restrictions,” he said. “Given how they
have interacted with the Fauquier County government and how they have
treated Martha, I think this calls out for an investigation. If you cut
off the PEC’s 501(c )(3) status, you can cut off PEC at the knees.”
The PEC has moved to dismiss Boneta’s suit in its entirety because it
“has failed to set forth valid claims,” said Heather Richards,
vice-president of conservation and rural programs, wrote in an email.
The group also released a detailed post on its website that presents
its side of the story.
“PEC and other land trusts across the country take our responsibility
to uphold conservation easements in perpetuity seriously, and work hard
to maintain positive relationships with landowners,” the post says. “We
are saddened by the public misrepresentations about both the terms of
this conservation easement and the facts surrounding the court case and
its ensuing settlement, which was agreed to by all parties.”
But questions remain.
Why was Boneta singled out for an audit, and how did Schwartz and
others know about it beforehand? What does it say about the
relationship between the PEC and Fauquier County government that a
supervisor can encourage “aggressive enforcement?” How much inspection
is needed to determine whether there are apartments in the barn?
Martha Boneta’s Liberty Farm in Paris, Va., is subject to rigorous
inspections by a green group that enforces the easement on her property.
Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy
Research in Washington, has studied conservation easements for decades.
He said what began as a laudable effort to provide financially stressed
landowner with tax breaks in exchange for setting aside land for
conservation has been converted into a vehicle for government land
grabs. The actions taken against Liberty Farm appear to bolster these
concerns, he said.
“Mr. Marmet showed an appalling ignorance of the terms of the
conservation easement he, representing the PEC, was on Martha Boneta’s
property to enforce,” said Cohen, who witnessed the inspection in June.
“One is left with the impression that the inspection was little more
than a fishing expedition to find out how much he could get away with.
That’s not right.”
Read this and other articles for links and additional photos at The Daily Signal
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