Woodside hosts talk on saving open space through easements Woodside hosts talk on saving open space through easements (February 02, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

Say you're a homeowner with a sizable piece of property in Woodside. Say a portion of the property has really nice natural features, a meadow that attract birds or a huge grove of redwood trees, for instance. Say you'd like to make sure that those nice, natural features are preserved for future generations and not subdivided into a bunch of faux-Mediterranean mini-mansions.

If that's the case, then boy, does the Woodside Open Space Committee have a symposium for you!

At Woodside's Independence Hall on Thursday, February 10, from 4 to 6 p.m. local landowners have a chance to learn all about conservation easements, a technical term for putting development restrictions on land that has some environmental value.

Speakers include experts in the field as well as local property owners who have placed easements on the properties.

Greg Hendrickson, a lawyer, will speak about the legal and financial ramifications of conservation easements. Also scheduled to speak are Delia Fleishhacker Ehrlich and Antonia Adezio, the executive director of the Garden Conservancy, the organization that was recently granted an easement protecting the extensive gardens of Green Gables, the Fleishhacker estate in Woodside.

Other speakers who have put, or are in the midst of putting, conservation easements on their property are Bill Lane of Portola Valley, Alexis Bartlo and Roger Spreen.

The symposium is jointly sponsored by the open space committees of Woodside, Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills, and is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Attendees are asked to RSVP to Woodside Town Hall by calling 851-6790.

The Woodside Open Space Committee was formed to facilitate donations of conservation easements to the town and help protect Woodside's natural, rural beauty.

While conservation easements do lower the value of a property, they also bring an immediate tax refund, and can be useful for estate planning, said Karie Thomson, a member of the Woodside committee. However, she said most people grant conservation easements for altruistic reasons.

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