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February 14, 2008
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February 14, 2008 |
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Editorial Be bold on greenbelt fund This weekend Village Council could take a huge step toward making a longtime village dream a reality. It could do so by committing a -sizeable portion of its recent revenue windfall to replenishing the greenbelt fund. In the late 1960s forward-looking local leaders envisioned a greenbelt encircling Yellow Springs. The greenbelt has been part of village thinking for so long that many think it’s a reality. Unfortunately, it is not. While the eastern portion of the belt is preserved largely through Glen Helen, and Whitehall Farm protects the north, the Jacoby greenbelt on the western edge of town — which is especially vulnerable to the march of development from I-675 — remains unprotected. At this Saturday’s special budget meeting, Council members will decide where to commit Village revenues, including the $255,000 unexpected onetime windfall from 2007 estate taxes. Tecumseh Land Trust has asked Council to put $100,000 of that windfall into the fund, with a commitment of $50,000 yearly until the fund reaches its pre-Whitehall Farm level of about $350,000. This is a reasonable request, although perhaps it should be higher. For one thing, dollars spent on conservation go far: Village dollars are first matched by landowners’ cash, then matched again by state and federal grants. According to TLT, an investment of $125,000 can be leveraged into $500,000. Now is the time to beef up the greenbelt fund, which currently contains only $87,000. In the next few years several Jacoby greenbelt landowners may be ready to sell, according to TLT leaders; those landowners want to preserve their land, but they need financial help to do so. If Council has sufficient revenues in the greenbelt fund, it can act immediately when the need arises. If Council does not have the cash, the opportunity to preserve the green space on our town’s western edge will be gone. It won’t come again. Because Council had more than $350,000 in the fund in 1999, our town reacted quickly when the Whitehall Farm family unexpectedly decided to sell the land. Without that money, the Whitehall Farm story could have ended up very differently. Our town’s northern border might not now be green. The greenbelt enhances our town in many obvious ways: crops grow on it, water runs through it, wildlife thrives. We love to look at it, to enjoy the sensory pleasures of farmland. And a greenbelt strengthens our town in less obvious ways. It makes us distinctive. That distinctiveness not only feeds local pride, it’s good for business. People like to come here, to shop here, to spend the day here, partly because our town is —unlike most towns — surrounded by country. It’s hard to even imagine Yellow Springs without its green border. Let’s hope we never need to. It’s time for Council to step up and help make our town’s longtime dream come true.
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