Open Space Preservation
Actions and Links for Open Space Preservation
Garden State Preservation Trust
Open Space Committees and Trust Funds
Highlands Land Preservation Fact Sheet
Caring for Conservation Easements
For 40 years, local environmental commissions have been working to protect open space. They have created inventories of local public and private open space and made recommendations for their use. Commissions work with local open space committees, land trusts and environmental organizations, elected officials, planning boards and citizens to protect important natural resources through acquisition, Master Plans, and local ordinances.
ANJEC actively promotes open space preservation through information and guidance, conferences, workshops and courses. We are also active in efforts to protect important regions like the Highlands, the Pinelands and the South Jersey Bayshore.
Effective open space protection takes a combination of planning, regulation and acquisition.
Planning
Identifies important natural resources, preserved lands, and linkages
- Use the town’s Environmental/Natural
Resource Inventory (
230kb)
(ERI) to identify and local existing preserved lands and important areas
for future preservation - Inform citizens and local officials of benefits of
open space preservation
( 206kb)
- Develop an Open
Space Plan ( 192kb)
and Farmland
Preservation Plan ()
guidelines for municipal farmland preservation plans to help your town
qualify for planning incentive financing from Green
Acres and the State
Agriculture Development Committee
Regulation
Uses local ordinances and state laws to protect important natural resources and lands that surround preserved areas
- Help develop and convince governing body to enact
ordinances
( 166kb) to protect
specific resources like steep slopes, stream corridors
- Persuade the Planning Board to require conservation easements on wetlands, stream corridors and other important resources as conditions of approval for subdivisions and site plans
- Inventory, monitor and enforce existing conservation easements
- Monitor the local Recreation and Open Space Inventory (ROSI) which Green Acres requires for its grants and loans to insure that preserved land is not used in an unauthorized manner
Acquisition
Obtains land through purchase, “bargain sale” (obtain land at less than appraised value) or donation; includes purchase of full title, development rights and/or conservation easement
- Work with local officials and fellow citizens to pass a referendum to
establish a local Open Space Tax dedicated to land acquisition. ANJEC’s
Handbook for Public Financing of Open Space in NJ ( 1.6mb),
available online or for purchase, includes state enabling legislation
for local open space taxes, summaries of financing approaches and ways
to build voters’ support.
- Organize and serve on your local Open Space Committee
- Work with local officials, local and statewide land trusts to develop
applications to Green
Acres, Garden State
Preservation Trust and State
Agriculture Development Committee.
1/13