Conferences
Beyond Cropland Leasing: Legal Issues with Recreational and Solar Leases on Farmland
Peggy Hall and Evin Bachelor
Summary
Alternative leasing on farmland offers landowners the ability to diversify their revenue streams and capture additional value from their properties. Two increasingly popular types of alternative leases today are recreational leases and solar energy leases. Recreational leases allow persons to use farm property for hunting, fishing, hiking, and similar recreational activities. Solar leases permit the placement of solar energy collection systems on farmland. These types of leases present legal issues that are both similar to and different than the more familiar cropland lease. For example, farmland owners who lease their land for crops are accustomed to setting rental payments, but determining the payment for recreational or solar energy purposes is much different than calculating the land’s worth for crop production. In this project, we identify the important issues for landowners to consider when leasing land for recreational and solar energy purposes. Highlighting our two recently published legal guides on recreational and solar leases, we discuss solutions and offer examples of lease provisions that address critical legal issues for landowners.
Details
| Conference | 2019 National Farm Business Management Conference |
| Presentation Type | 20-Minute Presentation |