Links

Whitepapers

• "Community Choices: Thinking Through Land Conservation, Development, and Property Taxes in Massachusetts" -  a study investigating the relationship between land conservation and property tax bills.
• "Open Space Zoning: What it Is & Why it Works"

WTRA Publications

• How to be an Effective Advocate for your Community
• Meet the Candidates for BOS – 2003

Newspaper Articles

• 10-20-03 - Tax plan designed to save Erdenheim Farm advances – Philadelphia Inquirer. A "landmark" taxing plan that would save one of Southeastern Pennsylvania's most prized pieces of land from development has won approval from the Colonial School Board.
• 6-24-03 - Open-space proposal awaits tax plan OK – Philadelphia Inquirer. Under a developer's proposal, extra tax money generated by a planned retirement community would go to preserve acres of Erdenheim Farm.
  View without graphics on Inquirer website or View with graphics as PDF (longer load time)
  This article describes an innovative open space financing strategy being explored by Whitemarsh Township, the Colonial School District and Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority. If approved, the money would be used to purchase and permanently preserve portions of Erdenheim Farm. The TIF mechanism was first put forward in the 2001 Community Agreement signed by representatives of the WTRA, the Hill at Whitemarsh, the Whitemarsh Foundation and the other groups involved with the negotiations.
• 11-07-02 - Open space a hot investment - Philadelphia Inquirer. Despite a sagging economy, many voters in the November 2002 elections are willing to pay more to preserve land. Voters may still be skittish about putting money into stocks, but they are bullish on investing in open space. In an election trend that spans more than a decade, voters in 10 municipalities in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey authorized tax increases and as much as $18.5 million in bond issues to buy land or the development rights to it, to keep it off limits to builders.
• 11-08-01 - Land preservation wins at polls - Philadelphia Inquirer. In the November 2001 elections, residents of 11 municipalities in the Philadelphia suburbs overwhelmingly endorsed tax increases and, in one referendum, a $6 million bond issue to control sprawl. The funds will be used to buy open land or the rights to it and hold it off-limits to builders forever.
• 3-16-01- Land preservation in region falling short of long-term goals. - Philadelphia Inquirer.
  Last year, 8,363 acres were saved as open space in the five-county area, environmentalists and planners reported. They want 591,619 by 2025.
• "An Acre an Hour" - Philadelphia Inquirer article

Web sites of interest

• Whitemarsh Township
• Smart Growth Network
• Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association
• Natural Lands Trust
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• The Trust for Public Land
• Heritage Conservancy
• Pennsylvania Land Savers
• 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania
• Lafayette Hill Directory