EPCAMR - Residential Development, Access to Funds are Hurdles to Saving Open Space.

Source: Times Leader, BRETT MARCY [email protected]

HARRISBURG – Sprawl is on the horizon.

It’s been slower coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania than some other areas of the state, but rampant suburban development will arrive. And the region may not be ready for it, environmentalists say.

In areas of the Back Mountain, such as Dallas Township, huge tracts of farmland and wooded hills have already been gobbled up by residential development.

“The pressure is coming, and it’s coming from a lot of different areas,” said Robert Hughes, regional coordinator for the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and an environmentalist. “The Back Mountain areas, that’s no longer the back mountain. It’s sprawl.”

Luzerne County is just now beginning to experience the consequences of rampant residential growth – strained municipal services, overcrowded schools and the loss of green spaces for recreation, farming or simply to look at.

Environmentalists saw a glimmer of hope last week when voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question allowing the state to borrow up to $625 million for environmental programs in Gov. Ed Rendell’s proposed Growing Greener II initiative.

Among the stated goals for Growing Greener II are open space preservation, abandoned mine cleanup, acid mine drainage cleanup and improvements to state parks.

Local officials hope to tap into that new pool of money, but it won’t be easy.

Officials in townships in suburban Philadelphia and elsewhere have worked feverishly in recent years to raise money for environmental initiatives.

In Chester County, more than 20 of the county’s 73 municipalities have passed ballot questions, raising their local earned income tax specifically to preserve open space.

“Time is against us. There’s considerable pressure for development. It’s the critical issue of our day,” said Clifford Lee, chairman of the open space committee in East Nottingham Township, Chester County. “It’s not something that you want to be on the sidelines when it happens.”

East Nottingham residents approved an earned income tax increase for open space preservation, and the township hopes to buy the development rights to 2,900 acres to keep the land forever undeveloped.

Also in Chester County, East Bradford Township residents approved a 0.25 percent increase in earned income tax, which has allowed the township to build a $400,000 open space fund since 2000. The township has used that money as leverage to borrow $12 million. The money has gone to preserve more than 1,000 acres of open space.

“I think we did this just in the nick of time,” said Jack Stefferud, chairman of the East Bradford open space review board.

He warned officials in Northeastern Pennsylvania not to wait until it’s too late to think about saving precious farmland, woodland and open fields. Plus, he said, having local money in-hand will sweeten the pot when municipalities apply for Growing Greener grants.

“If you want to play the game, you’ve got to come to the table with your own money,” Stefferud said. “If you don’t, you’re out of the game.”

Luzerne County has been willing to pony up significant money for other environmental programs in recent years, including its farmland conservation program and the recent purchase of 3,000 acres of land from Theta Land Corp., according to county planning commission Director Adrian Merolli.

In the Theta land purchase, the county kicked in $4 million and the state gave about $1.2 million. Merolli said the county’s share was key to gaining state dollars.

“I think the state did it because they saw the county was serious,” he said.

Some municipal officials say they’d like to pay for some of the costs of improving and preserving the environment, but the financial pressures are too great.

Dallas Township supervisor Chairman Philip Walter said he has watched as acre after acre of farmland disappears in his township, but he said there isn’t much that can be done about it.

“The fact is that most of these things have gotten so far out of hand that we haven’t got into it,” Walter said. “There was a lot of open space and a lot of farms here, and now all of a sudden the farms are gone.”

He said his taxpayers are strapped as it is with rising school district and county taxes. They simply could not bear a tax increase at the township level, he said.

Instead, Walter said municipalities in the region have come to rely on private environmental groups, such as the North Branch Land Trust, which promotes open space preservation in Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Columbia, Bradford and Sullivan counties. The group works with private landowners to gain the development rights to open land.

Rich Koval, a land protection specialist and naturalist for the North Branch Land Trust, said he isn’t surprised by the reluctance of local officials to commit local taxpayer dollars toward open space preservation.

“It hasn’t been sold up here yet,” Koval said. “Even though we’re seeing a lot of sprawl, it’s not like the southeast ... There’s some old politics here, and it’s a tough sell.”

Perhaps, but Luzerne County’s recently adopted open space master plan could be the beginning of a new era of environmental activism. Merolli said the county is considering offering incentives to municipalities that raise money for open space preservation.

“We know that it’s coming,” Merolli said of suburban sprawl. “We’re just trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

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Brett Marcy, the Times Leader’s Harrisburg correspondent, may be reached at (717) 238-4728.