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133 C Natural Land Preserving and Funding Open Space Robert L. Ryan and Arthur P. Bergeron, Esq. ommunities across the country face the challenge of preserving and maintaining open space from the threat of encroaching development. For those local residents and government officials interested in protecting open space, it is essential to integrate its preservation with broader community goals, and to think of open space preservation as a “development ” option like other forms of real estate development. Open space provides multiple benefits for a community including maintaining environmental quality and biodiversity, protecting drinking water supplies, preserving historic and cultural resources, providing recreational opportunities, preserving community character, and creating economic opportunities. Open space preservation is often undertaken both by municipalities and by local, regional, and national land trusts, and the tools described in this chapter are relevant to governments, non-governmental land trusts, and citizen groups. This chapter outlines the multiple benefits of open space protection, describes constituencybuilding techniques to mobilize those who share these interests, and then illustrates creative land acquisition and protection options that communities can use to leverage limited open space funding. It also shows residents and officials the basic tools to calculate the potential profit from traditional development, and devise land planning strategies that make open space preservation a reasonable alternative. Preservation techniques that will be discussed include management agreements, conservation easements, limited development, and overlay zoning to protect specific resources that are important to a community, such as scenic hillsides, viewsheds, wetlands, and other habitat areas. Case studies from rural, suburban, and urban communities are used to illustrate the strategies described in this chapter. Multiple Roles of Open Space Open space helps to create livable communities. Crowded cities, such as New York City, are much healthier places to live because of the presence of nearby parks, such as Central Park. 10 134 Preserving Natural Resources Suburban communities also benefit from an abundance of parks, playgrounds, and preserved natural areas. Likewise , the rural character of many small towns and villages is created by the surrounding countryside that charms local residents and tourists alike. Unfortunately, open space is a valuable and threatened commodity in many communities. In the state of Massachusetts alone, it is estimated that approximately 44 acres of open space are developed every day, or a total of 25 square miles per year (Steel 1999). The statistics at the national level are even more staggering: the National Resource Inventory conducted by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (1997) estimates that between 1992 and 1997 close to 16 million acres of land were developed. Farmland is by far the most threatened open space resource. Of the total 16 million acres of new development in that five-year period, nearly 9 million acres was farmland, an area equal to the combined size of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Local residents and government officials concerned about the demise of open space in their communities need to better understand the multiple roles of open space in order to develop the necessary local support to fund preservation efforts. While the term “open space” is often used in planning and conservation circles, it has a rather generic meaning. As some planners have suggested, the term “green space” does a better job describing urban land which is not occupied by buildings and transportation systems (i.e., roads, streets, parking lots) and is primarily vegetated. For the purpose of this chapter, open space will be viewed broadly to include municipally owned open spaces, such as parks, playgrounds, nature preserves, and trails, as well as other types of public and private open space, such as school yards, cemeteries, farmland, forests, undeveloped lots, and even utility and transportation corridors. In heavily built-up urban areas, the only remaining open land is usually found along streams and rivers, utility rightof -ways, and abandoned industrial areas. Many cities and towns have capitalized on these overlooked resources to revitalizetheir communities. For example, the City of Los Angeles is converting an abandoned railyard into much-needed parkland for inner city residents as part of an effort to create a new park and trail system along the much-maligned Los Angeles River (Sorvig 2002). Cities as diverse as Chattanooga ; New York; Portland, Maine; and Louisville have also created parks along their formerly industrial waterfronts. Local leaders and government officials concerned about open space protection need to look creatively and opportunistically at the array of open space in their communities in order to preserve, protect, and enhance these resources. Multiple Benefits of...

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