With rolling hills and beautiful landscapes overlooking a pristine lake, undeveloped land plays an important role in the town of Skaneateles.

Town Councilor Dave Laxton is heading up an effort he hopes will keep it that way.

Laxton is pushing a program to conserve open spaces and agricultural land to prevent them from becoming developed.

Town officials reviewed the comprehensive plan in the late 1990s and realized they need to enact a local program to maintain the town's undeveloped spaces.

Laxton is working to reorganize a committee to head this effort.

“I realize that some point in time if we don't take action now, once land is turned into commercial or residential development, it's never going to return to what it is now,” Laxton said. “It's so important to the town to preserve the town's rural character.”

During reviewing the comprehensive plan, the town drafted a strategy using zoning policies to discourage overdevelopment.

“Generally, ... people are concerned about the loss of farmland and open land and all over the state, all over the country, they've been doing things to preserve the land,” Laxton said.

The state has a farm land protection program just for agricultural land, but the program is competitive - too competitive for Skaneateles' high property value, he said.

“They want to get the most bang for their buck,” he said. “Locally, that's kind of tough.”

This drove home the need for a townwide program, which officials have developed over the years.

The town is seeking conservation easements. This program allows landowners to continue to use their land as long as they don't develop it. Agricultural acreage can have agricultural buildings, but not commercial structures, for example.

The easements can help with two of the town's leading industries, tourism and agriculture, Laxton said.

“With our topography, the scenic shed is very important part of the community,” he said.

As with most government endeavors, the town has to limit the size of its program to match the available funds.

The town has a community preservation fund currently. The town began the account with $500 and it has grown slowly as property owners contributed fees to it. The Zoning Board of Appeals imposes such fees if a landowner wants to exceed the limit for a parcel's allowed impermeable surface space.

The state recently permitted some communities, such as Long Island and Warwick, to put before voters a measure imposing a 2 percent transfer tax. This fee for selling properties would go to the municipalities' preservation funds.

Skaneateles#, committee will look at dozens of factors and features to decide how to prioritize land to preserve. There are three basic aspects that will drive properties#, ratings. Laxton calls for viable farm land, significant viewsheds and environmentally sensitive areas.

“Anything that makes it more important to preserve from the community's standpoint,” Laxton said.

He wants to create a list of people who may be interested in an easement or even donating their land. However, the committee still has to come up with a rating system for potential parcels and a process to seek funding.

“We don't have the money to do them all,” Laxton said.

While Laxton will continue to drive the effort, he's eager to include other perspectives on the committee.

“I took the whole winter to look at other communities to see how they are handling this ... so we're not going into unchartered waters,” Laxton said.

He specifically explored Canandiagua and Pittford's policies for preservation.

Like other communities, Skaneateles has to deal with the rising cost of transportation and food. Laxton points to keeping food growers in the area as an economical way to help with ballooning prices.

While the land preservation effort is a complicated and detailed undertaking, the town began another project to encourage agricultural land in the region that is still going strong 10 years later.

The Skaneateles Farmers Market provides local growers a place to sell their produce while residents can buy locally grown food and support the people that are driving the agricultural industry in the area while keeping money in the community.

“One of the things we do ... we complain about the bad things, but we don't promote the good things,” Laxton said. “This is a positive thing we're doing to keep things as they are.”