Posted : April 9, 2007 7:18 AM
By CHRISTOPHER RUVO
The Intelligencer (http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-04092007-1327334.html)
With developers offering him virtual warehouses of money, Tinicum resident Rick Patt had a decision to make.
Should he sell the 50 acres of open meadow he looks out on every morning, or should he put the rolling land into a conservation easement, protecting it against future buildup?
After comparing the possible — but not guaranteed — big pay day promised by developers with the certain benefits of preservation, both existential and financial, Patt sold the development rights on his land to Tinicum.
“It became a no-brainer,” he said. “I realized that putting probably 10 or so houses on the property ... I look at every morning is not what I want to do. ... I became aware of the value of open space.”
Patt's decision is one being made by more and more residents in Tinicum, an Upper Bucks municipality of fewer than 5,000 people, where a concerted, well-organized effort is under way to beat back development and keep the rural township the very postcard of what urban outsiders think of as Bucks County: rolling pastures, peaceful woodlands and quaint farmhouses.
Development pressure on the township has increased in recent years, as evidenced by an application to build more than 200 units — possibly a mix of condominiums and single-family homes — on properties on Route 611 and Durham, Gruver and Randt's Mill roads. The original proposal was for 550 units.
Tinicum borders the Delaware River and is near fast-growing areas such as Central Bucks, Hunterdon County, N.J., and Lehigh and Northampton counties. Given that, officials believe more large-scale proposals are on the way, and they are acting fast to preserve land now.
Spearheaded by the township's open space commission and the Tinicum Conservancy, a volunteer, nongovernmental community group, Tinicum has preserved 3,825 acres through conservation easements, said Norm MacArthur, chairman of the commission.
That amounts to nearly 20 percent of the township, he said, including vital natural resource areas along the Tohickon and Tinicum creeks. Throw in protected county and state lands, and the total protected area jumps to 5,824 acres, or nearly 32 percent of the land, MacArthur said.
According to him, the goal is to preserve another 1,000 acres through township conservation easements this year, purchases made possible by taxpayers' 2-to-1 support of a 2002 referendum that authorized officials to borrow $5 million to spend on open space preservation.
“It's very easy to say that Tinicum has been at the forefront of land preservation in the county,” said Kristine Kern, open space coordinator for Bucks County.
Not everyone sings Tinicum's praises, though.
Robert Gundlach, attorney for a development partnership that wants to build the homes and townhouses near Route 611, said the township has been unwilling to allow reasonable development or to accept a “fair share of the region's housing demand.”
“There's nothing wrong with a good open space program as long as there are reasonable opportunities for development,” said Gundlach. “There is a great demand for affordable housing in the region. ... Tinicum hasn't allowed for any high-density development. As soon as someone proposes the housing, residents come out and yell and scream, and the developer goes away. We're standing our ground.”
The development partnership, the Piper Group and Main Street Developers, could be back before the board of supervisors this month to discuss their project. Last November more than 100 residents protested against the development outside the municipal building before a hearing on the proposal, raising concerns about such things as traffic, pollution and degradation of natural resources.Indeed, Karen Budd, president of the Tinicum Conservancy, which monitors township properties in conservation easements to ensure development is not occurring, said protecting natural resources is critically important.
“It's my feeling that if we waste what we have in natural resources, then nothing else is going to matter,” said Budd, wife of township Supervisor Boyce Budd and a former scientist with The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization.
“The biggest issue is water. If we draw down water resources and can't recharge our aquifer, then we'll be left with nothing,” she said.
Residents have been receptive to the conservation message. Many, like Patt, have donated the development rights on their land or sold them at a price often half their appraised value.
The Zaveta family is emblematic of that open space ethos. Richard Zaveta — a builder by profession — and his wife, Madeline, donated the $2 million development rights on their 146-acre farm to Bucks County because they want to maintain the character of the land.
“People here have responded to the message of land preservation,” said MacArthur, a former New Yorker who 11 years ago moved to a 50-acre farm he has since preserved.
The open space commission he heads developed the township's open space plan, which targets key properties for preservation. Along with the Tinicum Conservancy, the commission educates residents about preservation and tries to dispel what MacArthur says are misconceptions about conservation easements.
Literally by “ringing doorbells and sitting down with people,” the commission has put the word out that selling development rights on land does not mean landowners are giving up ownership of the property. They still own the land; they just can't develop it.
The group tells property owners about how if they donate the development rights on their land, they are annually eligible to deduct from their taxes up to half their yearly income until the amount of deductions they've made equals the appraised price of the development rights, he said.
Folks who sell their land's development rights at half the appraised value are considered to have donated half their development rights and can make deductions based on that donation, he said.
While many would argue a property's value drops when it no longer can be sold for development, Budd said the opposite can prove true.
As the areas around Tinicum are built up, people in search of country living will be more willing to pay top dollar for a property in a rural setting where it is guaranteed development will not encroach, she said.
With neighboring townships such as Bedminster and Solebury pushing robust preservation programs of their own, a rural enclave can be carved out where property values “are increased in the overall area,” said Patt.
“The time to act is now,” said Budd.