James L. Johnson House - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HISTORIC PRESERVATION EASEMENTS COME TO HSFF Tracey Connor. Board Member In 1995 the Historic Santa Fe Foundation helped shepherd the Cultural Properties Preservation Easement Act (the "Act") through the state legislature. The Act enables private citizens to establish historic preservation easements to protect historic structures, archaeological sites, cultural landscapes and traditional cultural properties. The Foundation has established a program to hold, monitor and enforce historic preservation easements. Because this program is new to New Mexico, the Foundation is working with property owners, appraisers, accountants and city planners to educate and assist in understanding the benefits of these easements and the process of creating them. A historic preservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement made by a property owner to protect the unique historic resources on property by restricting the type and amount of development that may take place. Each easement's restrictions are tailored to the particular property and to the interests of the individual owner. The easement creates permanent legal assurances that the property, even as it passes from owner to owner, will retain its unique characteristics. The specific rights a property owner forgoes when granting a historic preservation easement are spelled out in each easement document. The owner and the Foundation identify the rights and restrictions on use that are necessary to protect the property. The Foundation has the right under the easement agreement to protect the property. The property periodically is inspected to ensure compliance with the easement restrictions and enforcement of the restrictions in the event they are violated. When a historic preservation easement is granted, the property owner retains title, and can use, sell, or leave the property to the family. Future owners of the property must abide by the easement's restrictions. The easement is recorded at the county recorder's office so that all future owners and lenders will learn about the easement restrictions. If the easement donor wishes to qualify for an income tax deduction, the federal tax laws require some form of public access or public viewing be available. If the property is an occupied residence, the public access requirement may be satisfied by allowing the Foundation to conduct two guided tours each year and permit people affiliated with educational, professional or historical societies to study the property.
The term of an easement may be perpetual, or for a specified number of years. Only gifts of perpetual easements can qualify a donor for income and estate tax benefits. Easements may be amended by agreement between the property owner and the Foundation, provided that amendment is consistent with the purposes of the easement and does not impair the unique qualities the easement is designed to protect. Easements may be terminated if there is a change in conditions surrounding the property which makes the preservation purpose of the easement impossible to achieve. The property owner who donates a historic perservation easement may be eligible for income and estate tax benefits.The donation of an easement is a tax-deductible charitable gift, provided the easement is perpetual, designed to preserve an historically or culturally important land area or building, and donated to a qualified organization. To determine the value ofthe easement donation, the owner has the property appraised both at its fair market value without the easement restrictions and at fair market value with the easement restrictions. The difference between these two appraised values is the easement value. An easement may reduce estate taxes. If the property owner has restricted the property by a perpetual historic preservation easement before his or her death (or by will), the property must be valued in the estate at its restricted value. To the extent that the restricted value is lower than the unrestricted value, the value of the estate will be less, and the estate will thus be subject to a lower estate tax. For some property owners, these tax benefits may be sufficient to allow the property to be retained in the family rather than sold to pay estate tax bills. Historic preservation easements generally do not reduce the assessed value for property tax purposes, so do not have a negative impact on the propertytax base. Studies have shown property adjacent to or near easement-protected property may increase in value. Because the Foundation will incur monitoring and enforcement costs in holding and monitoring easements, its policy is to ask each easement donor to make a stewardship contribution to cover these potential costs. This easement endowment provides assurance to the easement donor that the property can be protected and preserved in perpetuity. Please call the Foundation office at 983-2567 for more information, or to discuss the possibility of granting an easement on your property.
Page 1: BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC SANTA FE F
Page 4 and 5: the Catron Block is today. By the 1
Page 6 and 7: The Johnson home returned to the fa
Page 8 and 9: States senator. She came to Santa F
Page 10 and 11: DIARY OF AN OLD HOUSE Excerpts from
Page 12 and 13: even use it when it's available. Ne
Page 14 and 15: SATURDAY DOCENTS AT EI ZAGUAN Jim M
Page 16 and 17: IN MEMORY This last year the HSFF l
Page 18 and 19: SANTA FE ARCHITECTURE--1881 Marilyn
Page 20 and 21: church was nearly completed on Pala
Page 22 and 23: sented that as something we might l
Page 24 and 25: fireplace is not fully consistent a
Page 26 and 27: get people together who knew the ho
Page 30: FOURTH-GRADERS TOUR SANTA FE Susan

James L. Johnson House - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?