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As the county prepares to designate some of its oldest farm properties historic, it will have to deal with wary owners.

"I want no part of it," said Bob Hilton of Dusty Hill Farm on Ridge Road in Claggettsville. "They tell you what you can do, how to repair it, make you pay for it."

Hilton is in luck, as his house has been altered and is no longer historic, said Claire Lise Kelly, research and designation coordinator for the Historic Preservation Commission.

The county published a list of potentially historic properties in the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites in 1976. Historic Preservation staff has been working through the list ever since, reviewing the properties for inclusion in the county's Master Plan of Historic Preservation, said Sandra Youla, a senior planner for the commission.

Staff has finished the review of Claggettsville and Etchison and is ready to present the findings to the Historic Preservation Commission.

The properties under consideration extend from Hipsley Mill Road to the upper tip of Montgomery County at Kemptown and Ridge roads. This marks the first extension into the Agriculture Reserve, a 93,000-acre swath of the county zoned for agricultural uses to preserve its rural nature.

A meeting last month explained the process to property owners. Next month the Historic Preservation Commission will hold a hearing to review the properties and make recommendations to the county Planning Board. The board will recommend which properties to include on the list to the County Council, which has final say in the matter. Public hearings will be held at each step of the way.

Thirty sites, including the entire Clagettsville and Etchison districts, were under consideration, said Scott Whipple, director of the Historic Preservation Commission. About half of them will be removed from the list because they no longer exist or they have been altered and lost their historic character, Youla said.

"The fact that we created an Agricultural Reserve in Montgomery County, that has helped preserve some of these old buildings and farms so there is quite a lot of architecture out there that tells Montgomery County's story," she said.

Montgomery County started as a tobacco-based economy, Youla said. One of the last remaining tobacco barns is still in good condition on the Brandenburg Farm on Mullinix Mill Road, she said.

"Quite a few people look at it, artists drew pictures of it," owner Jeremiah Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg said he was born on the farm, which has been in his family for more than 100 years.

Although he is proud of the barn, Brandenburg fears historic designation "would just be a nuisance."

Dick Biggs, owner of Rock Hill Orchard on Ridge Road, also fears the designation. The historic name of the property is the Molesworth-Burdette Farm. Biggs said he and his wife, Nancy, will move on one day and the next owner should be free to decide what to do about historic preservation. About two years ago he put an agricultural easement on the property to protect the land from development.

"We've protected the farm and the land, it's sort of repetitive to do the designation," Biggs said.

Agricultural easements have to do with the use of the land; historic designation is meant to preserve the architectural character of the property, Kelly said.

Biggs spent years restoring the house, which was in poor condition when his family moved in, he said. Youla described it as a wonderful example of a rural Victorian vernacular house, built around 1911. The farm also has a well-preserved spring house, bank barn, chicken coop and combination corn crib-grainery, she said.

"I'm probably as much in favor of preserving things as the most ardent person in the group," Biggs said, adding he does not think historic designation is necessary or desirable.

"I just don't like the idea of somebody telling me what I can or cannot do on my own property," he said.

A bill written last winter by County Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown to make designating a property over the owners' objections more difficult is still in committee.

Knapp did not return a call seeking comment for this report.

The Historic Preservation Commission has a track record of approving 98 percent of property owners' projects and tax credits are available to owners of historic properties, Whipple said.

"We need to continue to do some outreach to people to help them understand the process," he said.

A historic site or district must meet one of the following criteria:

-Character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or culture of the county, state or country.

-Be of a significant historical event.

-Be identified with a person or group who influenced society.

-Exemplify the cultural, economic, social, political or historic heritage of the county and its communities.

-The architecture of the historic resource embodies the distinctive characteristic of a type, period or method of construction.

-The architecture represents the work of a master, possesses high artistic values or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.

-The architecture represents an established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community or county.