A sure sign summer has arrived is our local parks filling with happy folks getting back outdoors after a long winter!
By:Michele S. Byers
But despite the public’s continued commitment to open space conservation, we continue to see examples of attempts to divert parkland around the state to some other use.
Once it receives open space funds from the state’s Green Acres program, a town or county is required to get state permission before permanently changing the use of any local parkland to another purpose.
Sometimes, it comes down to the question of "When is a park a park?"
For example, in their laudable quest to establish a community college campus in Cape May County, officials unfortunately seem determined to build on environmentally sensitive property they say isn’t parkland.
But there’s no question local residents consider the proposed college site part of the area’s parkland.
A network of bikeways and trails come together on the property. And it plays an important support role, providing access and parking, for an adjacent fairground where the local 4-H regularly holds horse and dog shows, as well as its annual county fair. Cape May County even holds its annual July Fourth fireworks display in the area.
To get the state’s OK to run sewers to the college site, the county agreed to set aside almost 13 mostly forested acres to protect tiger salamanders, a state-endangered species.
But to make room for the campus on the remaining land, the county needs to move the small train station and ticket booth currently on the property to the adjacent 4-H fairgrounds requiring another state approval!
Why jump through so many hoops to build the college at this site when others are available?
Perhaps the most salient argument is cost since Cape May County already owns the land, it’s free if the county wants to build there. And although the county has been offered other parcels of land at no cost, different sites might require substantial "up front" expenses.
Saving taxpayers money is a worthy goal. But money shouldn’t be the only factor when considering a parkland diversion.
Building at this site would severely affect surrounding parkland, forever altering an open space that already is serving the public quite well.
It also would destroy a greenway, breaking a link in a "green chain" that joins the popular Cape May County Zoo with the fairgrounds and other parkland, as well as adjoining properties to the west that have been targeted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for acquisition and inclusion in the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge. Once broken, such a chain is never likely to be put together again.
When the public invests a portion of its soul into these public open spaces whether they’re formally designated as parks or not elected officials owe it to their constituents to protect and enhance them, not destroy them.
For more information on conserving land in New Jersey, please visit NJCF’s Web site at www.njconservation.org, or contact me at 1-888-LAND-SAVE or by e-mail to info@njconservation.org.
Michele S. Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
