NRI is not basis for open-space funding

Lest I be tarred and feathered by my fellow environmental commissioners, I wish to correct a statement I made for the Examiner's candidate profile. Due to an editing oversight on my part, I incorrectly stated that the Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) is the basis for establishing funding for open space. The NRI is a science based, objective inventory of the natural resources within a municipality and is used to guide Planning and Zoning boards in the development of natural resource protection ordinances and zoning, as well as during the review of proposed development plans. The NRI was presented to the Borough Council in February 2002 and adopted in May 2006.

Although it did take three years (June 2003 to May 2006) for borough adoption of the Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP), it is this document that provides a mechanism of additional funding for acquisition of open space. Towns and counties with an open-space tax (or other stable funding source) and an OSRP are eligible for larger green acres acquisition grants (50 percent of the purchase price instead of 25 percent) under the state's planning incentive program. While neither of these documents is required for establishing an open-space tax, they do however, play an important role in that they provide both an inventory of potential open space (and other critical natural resources including steep slopes, riparian areas, threatened and endangered species habitat, wetlands, etc.) and a plan for protecting that space. The establishment of an open-space tax is left to the voters through a nonbinding ballot referendum

Wayne Smith

Allentown