a. Only Eligible Trust Recipients may acquire interests in lands with the Trust.
c. The Trust shall be used only by Eligible Trust Recipients for the acquisition of interests in land, including closing costs. "Closing costs" shall include recording fees, deed transfer or documentary stamp fees, the costs of performing the work and providing the documentation required under § 17-108(c)(iii), attorneys' fees, and the cost of obtaining or updating surveys, but in no event shall more than $5,000 in closing costs be paid per award. The Trust shall not be used to pay general operating expenses or endowment requests of Eligible Trust Recipients, nor shall the Trust be used for the management or maintenance of acquired interests in land. The grant from the Trust shall be disbursed only at the closing of transactions in which an interest in land is acquired.
d. All interests in land acquired with a grant from the Trust shall be held by the Eligible Trust Recipient approved by the Board to acquire the interest in land; except that an interest in land obtained with a grant from the Trust may be assigned from one Eligible Trust Recipient to another upon approval of the Board by two-thirds vote.
e. The owner of the fee simple title to property upon which a conservation easement was purchased with a grant from the Trust, whether the original owner that conveyed the conservation easement or a successor-in-interest, may reacquire and thereby terminate or extinguish that conservation easement, whether in whole or in part, only by complying with all of the following: (i) proving that the original conservation and/or historic values of the protected land have been lost or substantially impaired by factors beyond the owner's control, (ii) obtaining unanimous approval by the Trust Board, (iii) obtaining approval by at least nine members of Greenville County Council, and (iv) payment in cash of the current fair market value of the conservation easement, as determined by a certified appraisal.
f. If an Eligible Trust Recipient acquires fee simple title to land for conservation and/or historic purposes with a grant from the Trust, that land may not be sold, transferred, assigned, alienated, or converted to a use other than the use set forth in the grant award except by complying with all of the following: (i) proving that the original conservation and/or historic values of the protected land have been lost or substantially impaired by factors beyond the owner's control, (ii) obtaining unanimous approval by the Trust Board, (iii) obtaining approval by at least nine members of Greenville County Council, and (iv) payment in cash of the current fair market value of the protected land, as determined by a certified appraisal.
g. If any interests in lands that have been acquired by an Eligible Trust Recipient with a grant from the Trust are extinguished, terminated, sold, transferred, assigned, alienated, or converted pursuant to § 17-109(e) and (f), the Eligible Trust Recipient extinguishing, selling, transferring, assigning, alienating, or converting the interests in land shall replace them with interests in land of substantially equal current fair market value, with any deficit being made up by contribution to the Trust. The replacement land shall have the same or greater significance when evaluated under the criteria set forth in §§ 17-106 and 17-107. The Board shall verify that suitable replacement interests in lands have been identified and will be obtained before authorizing that any interest in land purchased with a grant from the Trust be extinguished, sold, transferred, assigned, alienated, or conveyed. Where replacement in whole or in part is impossible, funds realized which are not used for replacement interests in land must be credited to the Trust. Where funding for an original acquisition was from multiple sources, funds realized must be credited to the Trust under this section in proportion to the contribution that the grant from the Trust made to the original acquisition.
(Ord. 5247 § 9, passed 12-15-2020)