By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

The financial impact a warrant article on this year’s ballot could have on Hooksett’s land conservation fund may well be measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Warrant Article 24 asks to cap the amount of “current use” revenue entering the fund annually at $100,000.

“It’s definitely going to hurt our effort,” Conservation Commission Chairman Tim Johnson said of the proposed change. “I think the council is just looking at the bottom line and not thinking about the big picture.”

Current use is a state in which at least 10 acres of undeveloped land is considerably devalued, which gives landowners a break on property taxes.

The penalty for taking land out of current use is 10 percent of the fair market price once a property is sold.

Thus, in Hooksett, a $150,000 property taken out of current use generates $15,000 in revenue for the town.

Currently, 100 percent of current-use revenue goes to the conservation fund, which totals almost $440,000. All of that money has come in the last six years, including $209,700 last year alone.

And with several residential and commercial developments slated for current use property in the works, town officials expect even more revenue in the next few years.

“A lot of the land left in the community is in current use,” said Hooksett’s assessing department director Sandy Piper.

Properties that could soon be taken out of current use include about 300 residential lots at University Heights, and the Route 3 property that’s been pegged for development as a movie theater complex.

Piper said the going rate for most lots being sold in town is about $130,000 to $150,000. “That’s going to add up fast,” said Piper.

At the deliberative session of Town Meeting, councilors in favor of the proposed change said money exceeding the $100,000 cap could be better used if it returned to the town’s general fund.

“I think some councilors thought if there’s no real plan (for the purchase of conservation land), then why continue to stockpile the money when it could go to some infrastructure?” said Town Administrator David Jodoin.

Yet others, like Johnson, say the change could limit the conservation commission’s ability to meet the goals of the recently revised master plan, which calls for considerable open space and conservation areas.

“It would hurt us,” said Johnson, who spearheaded a ballot initiative two years ago that gave the conservation fund 100 percent of conservation revenue, as opposed to 50 percent.

“I fought the fight two years ago and got the budget committee’s approval and the council’s approval,” said Johnson. “But the faces have changed.”

The conservation fund was established in 1993, and started earning money in 2000, but the conservation commission has never drawn from the account.

Johnson said the commission had a “memorandum of understanding” with the town council that the fund wouldn’t be used to purchase new land until the revision of the master plan, completed last year.

“It made perfect sense to wait for it, too,” said Johnson.

Warrant Article 24 shows no recommendation from the town council, which was split 4-4 on the proposal. The change was unanimously recommended by the budget committee.

Voting day is Tuesday, May 9, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Cawley Middle School.