Open Space Change Will Have Unintended Consequences

Last week I read the letter from Mayor Frank DelCore where he noted his involvement with Sustainable Hillsborough, “I have helped to oversee Hillsborough’s significant progress on its sustainability development plan.”

I applaud him for those efforts especially for being there in the beginning years to help forge the partnerships necessary for the long term building of a sustainable community. I spent the last three years on the Sustainable Hillsborough Committee helping to lead the drive to the Bronze Certification. 

Years of dedication and hard work by all the committee members is what really made that happen. But we should have had Silver Certification by now, we were at the doorstep. Where are we with that initiative? I challenge Mayor DelCore and the other Township committee members not just to give lip service to the efforts but actually move the needle and take those final steps to achieve first ever Silver Certification for Hillsborough to make us one of the elite communities in Sustainable Jersey. We have the same Bronze certification we had over 6 years ago. Actually there has been little or no real progress.

As a founding member of FOHOS and a resident who has for years advocated for trails, I find this November ballot question conflicting. The main issue for voters to consider is that the monies should not come from a “Trust Fund” dedicated to Open Space. There are many ways the town could consider funding the improvement of open space lands.

While on the Environmental Commission the last two years, I made the suggestion to revise the tree ordinance to one which was more reasonable. This would stop the developers from claiming “hardship” every time they built in our town and we could fund the open space improvements this way.

So really where is the money intended to go to? Voters should know now because too many intended or unintended consequences will happen down the road if we allow this open space money to be diverted. Vote NO.

Bill Dondiego