What is a scenic easement?
Though no Virginia statute defines the term, a scenic easement is a recorded restriction on private land that protects its natural or scenic character. On land here the name can mean any of three instruments: a Blue Ridge Parkway easement negotiated in the 1930s, an open-space easement held by a public body, or a conservation easement held by a qualifying charity. The recorded deed sets what each restricts.
Three recorded instruments answer to the name, and each has a different holder
Search the Code of Virginia for a scenic easement and you will not find one defined. The phrase is a description people use, and when it turns up in a deed, a listing or a conversation about land in these counties it can point to any of three instruments that do have a legal home.
| Instrument | Who holds it | What frames it | What the source says it limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Ridge Parkway scenic easement | The United States, administered through the National Park Service | 16 U.S.C. 460a-2 and the recorded conveyance | Historically, unauthorized clearing, incompatible structures and removing trees or bushes without a permit |
| Open-space easement | A public body | The Open-Space Land Act, Va. Code 10.1-1700 and 10.1-1701 | Limitations or obligations protecting natural or open-space values, including land kept for historic or scenic purposes |
| Conservation easement | A qualifying charitable holder | The Virginia Conservation Easement Act, Va. Code 10.1-1009 and 10.1-1010 | Limitations or obligations protecting natural or open-space values, held by a charity whose own purposes the act lists |
The two statutory kinds are defined as nonpossessory interests: the owner keeps the land, and the holder's interest carries the limits. The dictionary-length version of the term is under scenic easement in the glossary. The sections below take the three one at a time.
The Parkway kind dates from the 1930s, and few were pursued after 1938
Scenic easements negotiated for the Blue Ridge Parkway belong to land along the Parkway itself, and the Parkway's 2024 landmark nomination is where their history is written down.
The nomination says about two-thirds of the Parkway route crossed private land, where Virginia and North Carolina negotiated scenic easements beside the right-of-way. The 1935 acreage target behind them, and what they typically restricted, are set out in the scenic easement glossary entry; the table above gives the short form.
The program did not last. The nomination says that after 1938 few, if any, scenic easements were pursued, and that owners along the route understood a straight transfer of the right-of-way but had trouble grasping "the comparatively sophisticated concept of scenic easements" and what the easements meant for control of their property.
What one of these easements means for a house near the road is taken up in whether you can build near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Open-space and conservation easements part ways first over who may hold them
The two Virginia statutes define their easements in nearly the same words. Each is a nonpossessory interest imposing limitations or affirmative obligations whose purposes include retaining or protecting the natural or open-space values of real property. The difference is the holder.
Under the Open-Space Land Act, an open-space easement belongs to a public body, and the act counts land preserved for historic or scenic purposes as open-space land. A public body may acquire such an interest for not less than five years, and the interest may also be perpetual, but not by eminent domain for the purposes of that chapter. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a public body, describes open-space easements as agreements that limit development rights while owners go on living on and managing the land for farming, forestry, recreation and other compatible uses, and says the restrictions are embodied in a deed permanently bound to the property.
A conservation easement under the Conservation Easement Act is held by a charitable corporation, association or trust exempt under the federal tax code, and the charity's primary purposes or powers have to include protecting natural or open-space values, keeping land available for agricultural, forestal, recreational or open-space use, protecting natural resources, maintaining air or water quality, or preserving historic, architectural or archaeological aspects. For every easement the holder must also have had a principal office in Virginia for at least five years, or be a national organization of at least five years' standing with an office in Virginia that is registered and in good standing with the State Corporation Commission.
How a conservation easement is donated, and the tax credit rules behind it, are in conservation easements explained, and the effect on a sale is the subject of whether a conservation easement lowers the price. The tax treatment of any easement is a tax adviser's question.
Whatever the instrument is called, the words recorded against the parcel decide
A label tells you which family an easement belongs to. It does not tell you what an owner may do on a given acre, because two easements of the same kind can reserve and restrict very different things.
The route to the actual terms runs through the land records. A title search finds the recorded deed of easement, the holder is named in it, and an attorney reads what it restricts and what it reserves. For a Parkway easement the Blue Ridge Parkway can say how it administers the instrument today. Near Galax, which set of land records the search starts in is its own question, taken up in what county Galax is in.
Scenic restrictions are one kind of easement among many a parcel can carry. Access, utility and other easements, and how each is created and recorded, are set out in easements explained.
Found a scenic easement mentioned in a deed?
Send the county, the tax map number and the deed reference if you have it. Lowell will talk through how the land reads with the restriction on it, and leave the legal reading of the words to your attorney. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does a scenic easement let the public walk onto the land?
Not as a matter of definition. The Virginia definitions describe open-space and conservation easements as nonpossessory interests that impose limitations or obligations, and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation describes owners continuing to live on and manage eased land. Whether a particular instrument grants any access to anyone is a question of its recorded wording, which the holder and an attorney can read.
Can a scenic easement expire?
Some can. Under the Open-Space Land Act a public body may acquire an interest of not less than five years, and the interest may also be perpetual. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation says its easement restrictions are embodied in a deed permanently bound to the property. The term of any one easement, and whether it can be released, is set by its recorded instrument and read by an attorney.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- 16 U.S.C. 460a-2, Blue Ridge Parkway U.S. House, Office of the Law Revision Counsel
- Blue Ridge Parkway National Historic Landmark nomination (2024) Virginia Department of Historic Resources
- Parkway Land Use Maps National Park Service
- Blue Ridge Parkway: directions and contact National Park Service
- Va. Code 10.1-1700, Open-Space Land Act definitions Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 10.1-1701, authority of public bodies to acquire open-space land Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 10.1-1009, Virginia Conservation Easement Act definitions Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 10.1-1010, conservation easement holder requirements Virginia General Assembly
- New easements Virginia Outdoors Foundation