Land to be preserved with $1.3M gift

KENNETT TOWNSHIP >> The township’s announcement of “by far the largest open space grant” it had ever received was the highlight of a meeting earlier this week.

Township Manager Lisa Moore read a prepared statement thanking the Mt. Cuba Center’s Board of Managers for having unanimously voted to give the township a grant of $1.3 million so it could acquire two parcels of open space. The statement said the township would provide more details about the properties, which total 123 acres, and its plans for them after the purchase is complete, which was expected later in October.

The property is located on the southeast corner of the township near Delaware. Kennett Township will commit approximately $2.1 million to the property, said Moore. The land will be permanently preserved but prior to preserving it, the owner may sell off 10 acres and the homes.

Typically the township does not identify exactly what parcel of land it wants to purchase until the deal is made, to avoid attracting other potential purchasers while negotiations are going on.

Moore said the township’s grants ordinarily come from the state and county, according to the statement. It went on to say that while both had been generous with such grants, they typically involved a 50 percent match from the township and imposed other requirements. But the grant from Mt. Cuba “amazingly” did not require any match at all, the statement said, and the center gave it just weeks after the township’s request.

Chairman Scudder Stevens said in the statement that the

grant was a major boost for the township’s ongoing effort to preserve at least 30 percent of its open space. He pointed out that many of the protected areas are held by conservation or homeowner organizations, but the ones funded by the grant would be managed solely by the township, giving it flexibility in options for recreational use and environmental protection.

“Receiving such a substantial grant from Mt. Cuba Center provides a major boost for our ongoing efforts to conserve at least 30 percent of our township’s acreage as permanently protected open space,” Stevens said.

Speaking directly during the meeting, Stevens said, “I thank Lisa and the volunteers for pulling together on a very short notice a very significant and very sophisticated grant proposal.” Stevens said the grant was a tribute to the creativity and work of the staff and consultants who enabled the township to accomplish things that “if we had to pay for, would increase in a dramatic way our budget outflow.”

Jeff Yetter, chair of the township’s Land Conservation Advisory Committee, said the gift will help double the amount of township-owned protected open space at a very lower cost per acre to the township. Yetter added that the parcels to be preserved were adjacent to existing open space and would help form corridors of conserved land, which offer better habitats for animals and plants and provide other environmental and social benefits.

Board member Richard Leff said residents deserved credit for supporting the township’s conservation efforts, serving on preservation-oriented boards and committees, and donating land. In other business, the supervisors unanimously approved a stormwater waiver for the Longwood Veterinary Center.

The center had applied for a building permit that would increase its impervious coverage to a point just over what the township ordinance allowed, but proposed to mitigate the increased runoff by using pervious materials in its parking area.