Hopewell passes $7 million open space bond plan

Township Committee approved measure in 5-0 vote

John Tredrea
   
   An idea that acting Hopewell Township administrator Peter Raynor brought here from Montgomery Township, where he was administrator for 18 years, was the driving force behind a $7 million bond ordinance the township committee voted 5-0 to adopt March 16.
   The ordinance will provide up to $6.6 million for purchase of tracts of township properties that would be preserved as open space or farmland.
   Covering the cost of those purchases would be revenues from the township’s open space tax of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value. Originally proposed by township Committeewoman Kathy Bird-Maurice, the tax was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the November 1998 general election. The tax is expected to generate an estimated $350,000 a year.
   Revenues are expected to total $7 million during the next 20 years. Those dollars will fund up to $6.6 million in open space purchases that would be covered by the bond ordinance adopted March 16.
   “Thanks to Mr. Raynor for bringing a wonderful idea to us from Montgomery Township,” Committeeman Jon Edwards said before the adoption vote on the bond ordinance.
   The measure also was enthusiastically supported by Edmund Stiles, president of the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) and the Delaware and Raritan Greenway and broker of the majority of open space projects that have occurred in the Valley since the 1980s.
   “You’re doing a wonderful thing tonight in bonding for open space,” Dr. Stiles said.
   No bonds will be sold until a specific parcel of land comes along that the township wants to purchase, Mayor Marylou Ferrara said after the ordinance was introduced on first reading by a 5-0 committee vote March 2. The amount of bonds to be sold in such cases would cover the cost of those purchases and no more.
   Three such purchases were approved by the committee under three ordinances adopted March 16 (see separate story). All the purchases will be done in partnership with non-profits and other government agencies, at the state and county level.
   Under another ordinance adopted March 16, the township will contribute $18,000 toward the $2.3 million purchase of development rights on a large farm, owned by the Weidel family in the northwestern section of the township (see separate story). Purchase of those rights would restrict development on the property.
   Mr. Raynor, who came on board as acting township administrator several months ago after Richard Van Noy resigned, said the $7 million bond ordinance should be fiscally “self-supporting by the end of the year … unless we spend all the money (the full $7 million) in the first year, which is doubtful.”
   It is the open space tax revenues that will make the bond ordinance self-supporting, Mr. Raynor said. He added that, even with the addition of the $7 million debt, the township still will be well within state regulations on municipal indebtedness. The state allows municipalities to maintain debt service up to 3.5 percent, averaged over the past three years, of its total tax assessments, he said. The open space bond will increase the township percentage from less than 1 percent to 1.8 percent, when the calculations are done as they must be under state law.
   However, the actual amount will be just under 1 percent, Mr. Raynor said, by virtue of the bond ordinance being self-supported via the open space tax.
   By using bond ordinance proceeds in partnership with nonprofit organizations such as the FoHVOS, the state’s Green Acres, and the county’s Open Space Trust Fund programs, land can be taken out of circulation and preserved as open space.