Greenway Plan a sound
move for six communities
Six area towns are coming close to finalizing a plan that will protect the green grass, tall trees and flowing streams of the Crosswicks Creek/Doctors Creek Watershed.
Representatives of Allen-town, Hamilton, Millstone, Plumsted, Upper Freehold and Washington Township have formulated a Greenway Plan in the hope of connecting parks, trails and transition areas between waterways and dry land. The planning group is encouraging the planning boards and governing bodies of the towns in the watershed area to remember the green spaces in their communities, as well as their neighbors’ communities, when making planning decisions.
The Greenway Plan committee members are to be commended for their work, which was funded through the municipalities and the state Department of Environmental Protection. All too often open space, parks and trails are interrupted or disturbed by growth when one municipality or another fails to plan on a regional basis. Members of this planning group, however, have decided that in order to preserve the greenways that they hold dear, the cooperation of all the communities surrounding the Crosswicks Creek/Doctors Creek Watershed is necessary.
Hopefully the planning boards and governing bodies in the participating municipalities will heed the committee’s advice and take the resources they hold in their treasure chest into consideration when forming policies or granting approvals for development.
Everything and anything that can be done to protect the region’s natural resources should be done because, as the Greenway Plan states, not only are there benefits to the community — as in recreational space and trails — but the quality of surface water, stream corridors and historic vistas is at stake.