Charlie Smithgall believes his Drumore Township farm is special.

The 243.5-acre parcel on Harmony Ridge Drive is one of the larger unbroken farms in Lancaster County, where the average farm size is around 70 acres.

The property encompasses a sizable portion of the Fishing Creek valley, which Lancaster County Conservancy has been working to preserve for years.

And much of it is a hilltop, offering a commanding view of the rolling Susquehanna River Hills of southern Lancaster County.

"It's a wonderful piece of property that should be farmland forever," the former city mayor said.

On Wednesday, the Lancaster County commissioners made sure Smithgall's farm remains in production agriculture in perpetuity by voting to accept the property into the county's farmland preservation program.

Smithgall, and his wife, Debbie, are slated to be paid $328,738 by the county for the development rights to the property.

That's half what the rights are worth, according to Matt Knepper, director of the county's Agricultural Preserve Board.

The Smithgalls agreed to accept 50 percent of the easement value.

"We accepted 50 percent because that gives the county the other 50 percent to work with," Charlie Smithgall said. "To me, farmland preservation is one of the most important things we are doing right now."

It's likely the county wouldn't have preserved the Smithgall farm any time in the near future, had the owners not agreed to the bargain sale.

The Smithgalls originally applied to have their farm preserved in 2000, and had been on the waiting list ever since.

Knepper said that the farm never ranked very high each year when the ag preserve board prioritized the properties in line for preservation funding.

"It's a big farm, and a good percentage of it is woodland," he said. "Woodland soils don't rank as high as good agricultural soils do, and our ranking is based 40 percent on soil types.

"Also, it's not adjacent to any other preserved farms, and that's a big component of our ranking as well."

The ag preserve board typically ranks more than 200 farms annually, and starts at the top of the list in spending down its funding pool.

Between 20 and 30 farms normally get preserved before the money runs out.

To enable low-ranking farms to improve their positions on the preservation list, the ag preserve board allows landowners to agree to bargain sales, which in turn affords the board more money for preservation.

Knepper said the historic low ranking of the Smithgall farm does not mean it has little value to the ag preserve program.

On the contrary, he said, it could prove to be quite valuable going forward.

"We're hoping to start putting together a cluster of farms in this area" of Drumore Township, Knepper said.

"It will take a farm and a landowner like Charlie to make a 50 percent offer to get the ball rolling and get a cluster moving, because without that, those farms not being adjacent to other preserved farms just don't rank very high."

Also at their weekly meeting Wednesday, the commissioners approved the preservation of two other farms.

A 29.1-acre farm in Manor Township, owned by Craig and Cynthia Frey, Joel and Jaclyn Frey and Anthony and Judy Haverstick, will be preserved for $43,650, and a 21.3-acre farm in Manor Township, owned by Anthony and Judy Haverstick, will be preserved for $34,128.

Like the Smithgalls, the owners of those farms accepted half the value of the easements to their properties.

preilly@lnpnews.com