Open Space In the News

New Jersey should spend $3.8 billion over the next decade to help preserve endangered woods in Paramus, a park in Fair Lawn and other parcels across the state, three Bergen County legislators said on Tuesday.

Under the majestic pines of a recently preserved River Vale property, the lawmakers joined environmental activists to endorse the plan, which would shore up New Jersey's nearly bankrupt open-space fund.

"We have our own countrified area here, and we want to keep it that way," state Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, R-Westwood, said during a news conference at the Poplar Road Wildlife Sanctuary. "We don't want to lose it all."

Vandervalk joined state Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Demarest, to urge fellow legislators to find a permanent fix for the Garden State Preservation Trust, the state fund that helps preserve undeveloped land, farms and historic sites.

The eight-year-old fund -- once brimming with $2 billion -- is almost broke, and activists warn that will make it much harder to keep properties out of developers' hands.

A $200 million infusion for the trust will go before voters on this November's ballot. But it's a stopgap that won't provide a long-term source of funds for preservation, warned Ann Halkias of Environment New Jersey, the group that organized Tuesday's event.

Instead, open-space advocates want the state to approve an additional $380 million a year for 10 years for preservation and park maintenance. The state would likely sell bonds to raise the money, but Halkias said activists would leave it to the Legislature to figure out the best way to pay. Cardinale and Vandervalk said a referendum for the $3.8 billion plan could go before voters in 2008.

"If we don't exert efforts to do what we can [to preserve land], we could have a great deal of dense housing that is certainly not what all of us want to see here," Cardinale said.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, wasn't at the conference but released a statement supporting more open-space funding. The money "is not really a debt for our future but really an investment in our future," she said.

Though the Poplar Road sanctuary is now protected, 26 adjacent acres near the Lake Tappan reservoir are targeted for development, environmentalists noted. State funds could also help block building on a 35-acre bog along Soldier Hill Road in Paramus and at Fair Lawn's Daly Field, they said.

Borrowing would add to the state's debt load, already among the highest in the nation. Governor Corzine has suggested raising money by leasing the New Jersey Turnpike and other state assets, but Cardinale and Vandervalk rejected that idea, saying it was just a sneaky way of increasing costs for taxpayers and drivers.

The Republicans said they opposed any new taxes for open space. The government could save money by fighting corruption and reducing the state workforce, they argued, though they wouldn't name a specific area to cut.

"If we have the money to have all of these people [on the state payroll], why don't we have money to go into something important like this?" Cardinale said.