CHARLESTOWN OPEN SPACE COMMISSION

Minutes February 16, 2005

 

NEXT MEETING:  Wednesday, April 20, 7:00 PM, Great Valley Middle School

 

Commission Members Attending Meeting:

Andy Motel, Chair x, William Andersen x, Alexandra Coleman x, Bob Jones x, Kevin Kuhn x, Rosemary Philips x, Bob Roggio _, Marcia Solda _, Sue

Staas x .

 

Minutes from November meeting.  There were no minutes from November meeting.

 

New Business:

1.    Reorganization:  Sue Staas, Chair.

   Vice Chair - Open

   Andy Motel, Landowner Liaison

   John Pickering, Secretary

   Bob Roggio. Treasurer

 

 Many thanks to Andy from the OS Commission for all his hard work! HE IS NOT GOING AWAY!

 

2.    Reorganized method of doing business:

§       The OS commission will be meeting approximately every two months on an as-needed basis.

§       Tasks will be discussed at meetings, assigned and highlighted in the minutes.

§       The more we can accomplish between meetings, the less often we will have to meet!

 

3.    New Members:  The Commission could use about 3 more members.

Desirable skills for a member of the Commission (Not all to be found in one person!) include:

§       Tax knowledgeable

§       PR knowledgeable

§       Writing skills

§       Willing to work

§       Event organizer

§       Knowledge of grants

§       Well-connected in the Township

Commission members are encouraged to recruit new members. 

B.  Procedure that was decided at September OS meeting follows:

·      Solicit possible new member

·      Circulate his/her resume to members of the OS Commission

·      Invite prospective member to attend next OS meeting in April to see if they want to be a part.

·      Commission will discuss and invite prospect to join the commission.

C.  Roz Epstein was suggested.  (Kevin will contact her). 

 

4.    Open Space Commission's Mission for 2005:

§       Make Open Space the primary and most desirable issue in the township. 

§       Bring the desirability and advantages of developing large tracts of land to conserve open space to the attention of all large landowners.

§       Build trust in the Township's ability to work with landowners to develop win-win solutions to their land development issues.

5.    Public Relations Plan for 2005:

A.  An information session for large landowners in the spring.

§       Preceded by a questionnaire whose purpose would be discover topics around land planning that are of particular concern.  We need two people to draft a questionnaire.  Volunteers, please?

§       Session would feature a speaker, refreshments and could be held in a private home.  John Pickering will recommend speakers when we know what we want.  We need an offer of a house for the session.

B.    A celebration of the completion of the Stonorov plan to be held in the Fall, probably 

§       Feature Eddie Scott, the consultant who is working with the Stonorovs.

§       This will be a big event - feature as an example of what can happen.

§       The Stonorov Plan is to be introduced in the Twp. newsletter due out any minute.

 

Rosemary has suggested that we focus on newsletters and website for now; and that we kick off our information sessions with the celebration and presentation by Eddie Scott; and follow up with another info session.

I need feedback from you on that, please.  Please include all OS members in your reply.

 

C.    A continuous communication effort via the Charlestown Website and the Township Newsletters, which are published quarterly.

§       It will be the responsibility of all OS members to find and contribute articles and information to the website; and to volunteer to write articles.

§       All information to be published should be passed by Linda Csete first.

 

Please volunteer to contribute an article about OS to the website or to the newsletter.   (Deadline for next newsletter is April 26). 

6.    Suggested Agenda items for next meeting:  Please send agenda items to Sue before the next meeting which is scheduled for April 20.

 

Agenda items so far:

§       OS Commission input into the township map.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Sue Staas

Secretary 

 

CHARLESTOWN OPEN SPACE COMMISSION

Minutes

 

April 20, 2005

 

NEXT MEETING:  Wednesday, June 1, 7:30 PM, Great Valley Middle School

(NOTE TIME CHANGE!)

 

Commission Members Attending Meeting:

William Andersen x, Alexandra Coleman _, Bob Jones _, Andy Motel x, Rosemary Philips x, Bob Roggio _, Marcia Solda x, Sue Staas, Chair x .

 

Guests:  Vincent Kling and Peter Goodman

Sue Staas introduced Peter Goodman, a Charlestown resident, who is very active with Trout Unlimited and therefore familiar with watershed issues.  Peter is a member of the Nature Center Board, and represents Trout Unlimited in Tredyffrin Township.  At Sue’s  request he attended the OS meeting to “look us over.”

 

Minutes from February meeting were accepted on motion.

 

Agenda Items: 

 

1. Township Newsletter deadline April 16 and OS article is needed.  OS will have a regular column in the Newsletter.  Andy Motel and Bill Andersen volunteered to draft articles.

 

2. Bob Roggio will draft a questionnaire to send to large landowners in the fall.  Purpose will be to ascertain specific interests/questions they have on OS  Marcia Solda asked if it could be ready for May primary vote.  Sue Staas will find out.  (It will not).

 

3. A recommendation was made and approved by general agreement to move the large social event celebrating the Stonorov property conservation to fall when the arrangements will be final.  Date and location must be decided at June meeting.

 

4. Suggestion to change time of OS meetings to 7:30 p.m. was accepted.

 

Sue Staas introduced Vince Pompo, partner at Lamb, McErlane and Twp. Supervisor in East Bradford who spoke to the Open Space Commission  on the subject of a  municipalities responsibilities and challenges as they work to preserve open space. 

 

East Bradford Township can serve as an important model for Charlestown’ efforts.  In the seven years their Open Space efforts have been seriously pursued, East Bradford has passed two EIT referendums dedicated to OS. The first passed with 60% approval, the second with over 70% approval.  Proceeds from the EIT have funded a bond issue of $12M, which, combined with grants, has so far funded the purchase of easements and the preservation of 900 acres.  The township still has $7M to devote to OS preservation, and the effort is ongoing.  East Bradford is almost exactly the same size as Charlestown! 

 

The efforts at preservation have focused on watersheds and on connectivity – so that the township is slowly building a “spine” of connected, preserved land.  It should also be noted that trails are included in the plans.

 

Vince’s comments on the use of the official map in East Bradford was particularly instructive.  Notes following are from an email Andy Motel sent to OS and Planning Commissions and Supervisors after the meeting:

 

Vince touched on the use of the Official Map in East Bradford as but one planning tool EB uses widely (and effectively, in my opinion) as a "safety net" by placing many parcels on the Map, and using the Open Space Lands Act as the device to raise an EIT tax (twice) and rate properties for easement negotiation.  Under the Lands Act the municipality passes an ordinance, then raises the tax, sets up a rating/ranking system and uses its Recreation Plan as a rationale for land it intends to preserve (we did one in '93 and it sets forth the same areas we essentially focus on saving now)

 

It is noteworthy that being designated on the Official Map in EB is regarded favorably by the landowners (with one exception).  This was apparently accomplished by stressing that landowners had "options"--like getting fair value from the Township. In fact, the Map is prominently featured at the annual Open Space dinner attended by the big landowners and they love to see their land on the Map. Vince said it was critical that landowners feel they were not being forced to dispose of their land in any one way, but rather the BOS told landowners that the Township could not very well prioritize ($$) their land for preservation via their ordinance under the Lands Act without also placing the land on the Official Map. They accepted that rationale. In EB only one property designated on the Map has ever triggered the one year clock and EB is negotiating with that landowner now. Thus far, EB has completed 11 or 12 separate deals with landowners since 1999, all done via the Open Space Lands Act, with the Official Map in the background as a safety net. Once they got funding in place their OS preservation credibility took off. Maybe we can expect the same "bounce" this year

 

EB's tax at 1/2%, is all devoted to open space preservation.  Presently, it generates about $600,000 annually and the EB has used the cash flow to float a 12 million dollar bond, of which they have spent about half.  Like us, EB: 

1.    seeks easements, and tries to avoid the ownership responsibilities of a purchase

2.    does NOT make public access a stipulation (the Lands Act specifically states that looking at the preserved land from the road is enough "public" benefit)

3.    sends newsletters to all EB residents 4 times per year; does the one annual dinner inviting the big landowners; and

4.    expresses no preference between land trusts an owner chooses to work with (the NLT and Brandywine hold easements in EB)

5.    EB considered and dismissed the idea of creating its own land trust as unnecessarily duplicative in light of existing trusts.

Agenda for next meeting:

1. The supervisors have requested that we send them a list of properties eligible for OS preservation according to our criteria to put on the official map.  Deadline is their June 6 meeting.
   
   
2. Bob Roggio needs guidance for his questionnaire.  What do we want to learn from landowners?
   
   
3. We need a venue and date for the celebration of the Stonorov preservation.

 

 

Meeting adjourned 9:30 p.m..

 

Respectfully submitted:

         Rosemary Philips

         Andy Motel

         Sue Staas

 

CHARLESTOWN OPEN SPACE COMMISSION

Minutes

 

June 1, 2005

 

NEXT MEETING:     Wednesday, August 17, 7:30 PM, Great Valley Middle School

(NOTE DATE CHANGE!)

 

Commission Members Attending Meeting:

William Andersen x, Alexandra Coleman _, Bob Jones _, Andy Motel x, Rosemary Philips x, John Pickering x, Bob Roggio _, Marcia Solda _, Sue Staas, Chair x .

 

Guests:  None

 

Minutes from the April meeting were accepted on motion.

 

Agenda Items: 

1.   Discussion on +/- of having multiple layers on the Open Space map denoting properties of higher or lower attractiveness.  Agreed that because we can’t know when any property might become available, we should name a single layer of “properties of interest.”

2.   The Commission went through the Base Map very carefully, discussing all large properties specifically, and many smaller properties that have unique qualities, including as “connector” properties that create green belts.  These could be critical to any future trail development.  We marked properties that we felt the Supervisors should be especially aware of, and agreed that that marked map would be forwarded to the Supervisors by Sue Staas (done).

3 An OSC member questioned a reference in Ordinance #109-2003, specifically paragraph 3.1.1, where the Board of Supervisors is given 45 days to react to a plan for subdivision.  It was the consensus of the OSC that this is too short a time, and we recommended to the BOS that they consider an amendment to the Ordinance.

4 We considered the timing of our Fall Event, and tentatively chose the second weekend in October (Saturday is October 8, and is Columbus Day weekend).  We will likely need to push ahead with panning for this event via email, before our next meeting.

Agenda for next meeting:

5    Fall Event - We need a venue and date for the celebration of the Stonorov preservation.

6    Bob Roggio needs guidance for his questionnaire.  What do we want to learn from landowners?

 

 

Meeting adjourned 9:30 p.m..

 

Respectfully submitted:

 

John Pickering

 

 

 

 

CHARLESTOWN OPEN SPACE COMMISSION

Minutes

 

September 21, 2005

 

NEXT MEETING is now scheduled for Wednesday, October 19, 2005.

Providing we have agenda items.  Please send suggestions to Sue Staas.

 

Commission Members Attending Meeting:

William Andersen _, Alexandra Coleman _, Bob Jones _, Andy Motel x, Rosemary Philips x, John Pickering _, Bob Roggio _, Marcia Solda _, Sue Staas, Chair x .

 

Guests:  Kevin Kuhn

 

Minutes:  With no quorum, minutes were not accepted.

 

Agenda Items: 

1. Most of the discussion focused on the upcoming Large Landowners party scheduled for October 15. 
1. The Party will be a celebration of the preservation of the Stonorov property.
2. A short program will focus on an overview of the preservation process.
3. We will hear from Nancy Most who preserved her property; and from the family who purchased it from the Mosts.
4. Members of the Open Space Commission will be asked to hand out the nametags, etc.  and will be asked to sit at different tables in an effort to mingle with the landowners. 

 

2. Reports from the supervisors:
1. The Official Map is under review by the County.  Next it will be advertised and then come before the supervisors and the township in open hearings.
2. The Supervisors expect to hire a coordinator for Open Space in 2006.

 

3. Open Space Budget for 2006
1. Sue received the budget request for the Open Space Commission.  She suggested that because the structure of Open Space administration will be changing with the hiring of a coordinator, that the Open Space Commission simply request a budget for its own activities.  (See attached budget request, which has been submitted.)

 

Respectfully Submitted

 

Sue Staas

Chair

 

BUDGET FOR OPEN SPACE COMMISSION

2006

 

 

 

The Open Space Commission recognizes that the structure of the Open Space effort in Charlestown will be changing when the Township hires a coordinator.  Therefore, we are only requesting a budget to operate the commission, itself.

 

We anticipate spending the $5500 we are requesting as follows:

 

1.   Speakers  (primarily a presentation of the Planning Commission’s Open Space Buildout scenario.  $500

2.   Community Outreach:  $5000

a.   Charlestown Day – Perhaps a township hike on the trails in the township followed by a picnic.  Refreshments, printing, postage, Buses.

b.   The HST committee would like to host a meeting of trail hosts, hikers, and township officials.  Refreshments, printing, postage, etc., will be required.

 

I have based our outreach budget on the 2003 actual figures, when we spent $5100 for Charlestown Day.  For the same amount, 3 years later, I hope we can sponsor two events – Charlestown Day and a smaller HST meeting.