New Castle County officials are ready to offer $6.6 million to two major landowners so they do not develop their farmland near Port Penn.
That’s despite the appraisal of a state agency that found that was too high for one of the farms.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the county is now hoping to use money from a federal conservation program to cover the cost of the deal.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control recommended the outright purchase of just one farm was $1 million less.
DNREC says the other farm did not require being purchased under the program to conserve open space and natural areas.