TO: Friends of the Aiken Land Conservancy
FROM: Larry Comegys, President
RE: Sale of Rose Trace
In 2014 the Aiken Land Conservancy received a generous and unrestricted gift from Phyllis and Paul Rosen of approximately 132 acres (Rose Trace) located in the City of Aiken. Accessible only through the Huntcliff subdivision, which is on Richardson’s Lake Road, the property is largely surrounded by existing development. It was intended that ALC would later sell the property, using the proceeds to help build the endowment needed to fulfill our legal commitments to regularly, in perpetuity, monitor the properties we protect through conservation easement. Fulfilling those future commitments requires a substantial endowment. We are now proceeding with a sale.
In selling the property we are mindful of the need to protect it from the level of development that is permitted in the city under the current zoning. Therefore, it is being sold with significant restrictions on any future development and is not being sold to a developer. Those restrictions, combined with the challenging topography of the property and its limited access, constrain its future use.
We deeply appreciate Mr. and Mrs. Rosen’s enthusiastic support for the sale and for our mission to protect the watersheds, historic properties, forests and farms of Aiken County. They recognize that to fulfill our mission, in the face of accelerating development pressure, ALC must have the financial resources to place new properties under conservation easement. ALC’s active leadership in the community, with more than thirty years of successful conservation experience behind us, will be critical as we all work to protect the unique quality of life that defines Aiken.