Valley citizens need to help raise $500K

EDITORIAL

By Ruth Luse
   While we listen to and/or read — with great frustration — the reports about tax reform talks going on in Trenton, it is comforting, at least, to know that locally we actually can do something about issues that affect our lives.
   And that we can count on people of good will to help us.
   We speak, in particular, about the news we got Friday — featured on Page 1A this week — that the Willard T.C. Johnson Foundation has made a commitment to give $1 million to the D&R Greenway Land Trust, for the purpose of preserving the St. Michael’s tract — if individuals, groups and businesses in the Valley area can come up with the $500,000 in private donations still needed to make purchase of that tract possible, and do it by March 15.
   What a wonderful piece of news. And what a tremendous incentive to keep those working to raise money for the cause going.
   An elated Jo-Ann C. Munoz, director of communications for the D&R Greenway Land Trust, said Friday: "The $1 million will be donated only if we raise the remaining $500,000. We are so close — we need the support of the entire community to make the preservation of St. Michael’s a reality."
   And she is so right.
   Just a week ago, those raising private funds to save the St. Michael’s land from development needed $1.5 million. Now their task is easier, but no less daunting. They have just 35 days left to gather the necessary $500,000. We believe they can, and will, get the money.
   But it will take the continued efforts of those already working on the preservation project to make that happen. Their names and the fundraising events they have planned can be found this week in the HELP SAVE ST. MICHAEL’S column.
   Community members not directly involved can get involved, participate in a fundraising event or support the cause by sending a check, or three-year pledge, to D&R Greenway, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton, 08540. For more information about donations, call 924-4646.
   As noted in a Page 1A account this week, the likely alternative to the preservation of the St. Michael’s tract is development, in the form of a "hamlet." Hopewell Township Planner Michael Bolan says the idea of a "hamlet" is to "create small-scale mixed use developments, with multiple forms of residential development (i.e. small lot single-family, townhomes, condos and apartments over retail or office), while also preserving the surrounding countryside by the transfer of development potential from the more rural areas of the township."
   While this kind of development does not sound threatening, it is not what the people of the Hopewell area want. For years, Hopewell officials and residents involved in planning have stressed the need for a greenbelt around the borough — one that would protect the character of the historic village that was founded in the early 1700s and incorporated in 1891.
   Most Hopewell citizens, we’re sure, do not want more development and traffic in their area, and for that reason alone, the preservation of the St. Michael’s land is crucial. We urge those who have not joined the preservation cause to get involved as soon as possible.