Buena Vista tour shows what open-space funding can save

By JULIET FLETCHER Staff Writer, 856-237-9020
(Published: October 18, 2007)

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - "You'll think you're in the Serengeti or somewhere."

It is midafternoon, and Fred Akers is leading a small group of observers through a tunnel of branches on the 70-acre plot of land he is busy describing, and which he says has just been saved from development.

Twenty minutes of walking later, he reaches his destination, a 5-acre hollow that becomes a vernal - or seasonal - lake after winter's snow and rain.

Grass blows in the breeze and a bird swoops overhead, quickly identified by one hiker, Michael Hogan, of the Weymouth Township environmental commission, as a Cooper's hawk, which is listed as endangered.

When wet, the hollow is a breeding-ground for rare types of frogs.

Akers, who represents the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association, had come to Buena Vista Township both to trumpet the value of the area that stretches behind Michael Debbi Park and to tie the fate of that fragile beauty to a battle for more government funding.

The site is about to be bought by the local township with funds from Atlantic County's Open Space Trust through a 2-cent earmark from every $100 of property tax paid. That purchase is possible, said Mayor Chuck Chiarello, because of the state's matching funds for such open- space initiatives.

But that money is now drying up and will run out after the 2008 fiscal year. Both sides agree that the system should be refunded; the question is by how much.

A ballot question in the Nov. 6 election, and supported by scores of environmental groups, asks voters to approve a bond issue of $200 million to allow the state to continue preserving open space, farmland and historic sites.

Earlier in the day, Chiarello, a Democrat, was joined by Howard Kyle, chief of staff for Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, and Mayor Kathy Chasey of Mullica Township, both Republicans, in a bipartisan statement of support for approving the ballot question.

Kyle said the county executive regarded the preservation of green space as an important "growth management tool," offsetting the environmental impact of development.

Joining the politicians were members of the group Keep It Green, a collection of more than 90 organizations and conservancies pushing to raise awareness about the measure.

The group has previously stumped in Cape May County, but Wednesday's event concentrated on highlighting the effect of rescuing the 70 acre in Buena Vista Township that is so close to the Pinelands.

Jaclyn Rhoads, of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, part of Keep It Green, said Wednesday, "New Jersey faces 'build-up' in the next 20 to 25 years." By then, she explained, all available land that has not already been protected would likely be built upon. And Doug O'Malley of another advocacy group, Environment New Jersey, said that 40 acres of the state undergo development every day.

Chiarello said later that the expected cost of the land, $185,000, came predominantly from Atlantic County open space funds. "But," he said, through state matching funds, "half of that really comes from the state." The municipality also got a $10,000 grant from the conservancy fund of the Pinelands Commission.

The Keep It Green wagon plans to roll into Cumberland County next week.

To e-mail Juliet Fletcher at The Press:
JFletcher@pressofac.com

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