Supervisors allocate $200K for open space
Money will be used to purchase 98-acre ‘gateway’ parcel
WEST VINCENT >> The Board of Supervisors has voted to allocate $200,000 of its Open Space Preservation Tax Fund to help preserve a highly valued, 98-acre property in the heart of what some call “the gateway to West Vincent.”
The supervisors unanimously agreed to commit the funds to the multi-partner effort to purchase a conservation easement for the so-called “16 Years” farm along St. Matthews Road, sonamed because of the length of time its owners have been fighting to ward off housing development on the property and to preserve it as open space.
But the vote on Feb. 21 came after a raucous session attended by more than 100 residents and open space supporters, at which one of the supervisors expressed doubts about the value of the township’s open space efforts concerning the 16 Years’ land.
Those who attended said Supervisor Michael Schneider expressed the opinion that he was concerned about township tax money being redistributed from middle-class taxpayers to upper-class, wealthy landowners. Those in attendance quoted him as wondering whether it mattered if the land, rated the most valuable of 15 open properties reviewed by the township’s Open Space Advisory Committee, “was developed or not.”
“At one point he did say that it would be okay with him if it were developed,” said Donna Brennan, a West Vincent resident and vice president of the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, which had worked with the landowners to cobble together the funding structure to purchase the open space easement. “He said he didn’t see why the township was using taxpayer dollars to give to the upper class.”
Schneider’s comments were met with boos from the audience, and strong responses from open space preservation advocates, those in attendance said.
Attempts to reach Schneider, who was elected to the board in 2015, for comment last week were unsuccessful. He did not respond to emails sent to his township account, or return a call to his office in Malvern.
But Robert Casciato, one of the three neighbors of the property who purchased it in April and who have agreed to sell its development rights, said that despite the controversy, he was gratified nonetheless that Schneider and fellow Supervisor John Jacobs, who had also expressed doubt at the wisdom of the proposed expenditure, had ultimately agreed to approve it.
“Every day I wake up and I think, ‘I can’t believe it really happened,’“Casciato said in a telephone interview Friday. “It has been a mission of mine for a long time” — 16 years in fact. “This is par of a gorgeous, beautiful valley that has been unchanged for hundreds and hundreds of years. Future generations should be able to enjoy this beautiful, bucolic view, one of the best in all of West Vincent Township.”
The amount approved by Schneider, Jacobs, and Supervisor David Brown — the board’s liaison to the Open Space committee — was $75,000 less than what the board had voted in January to recommend to the supervisors. The $790,400 funding structure developed by Pam Brown (no relation to the supervisor) of the French and Pickering trust called for the township to contribute $275,200, and for the remaining $514,800 to be split by the Chester County Preservation Partnership Program ($395,200), the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ($80,000), and the William Penn Fund’s Open Space Initiative ($40,000).
Those allocations have not yet been approved, but are expected to fall in line with the vote by the township.
“The 16 Years (property) presents a conservation opportunity,” said the board’s resolution, adopted unanimously by four of the board’s five members. It noted that the owners had agreed to limit housing built on the 98.8 acres to four, instead of the 30 they would be allowed, a number that some estimates showed could add $500,000 to the township’s tax burden.
The possibility of development, “is real, and deserves our active attention and active concern,” the open space board’s resolution read. “The land … is a natural gateway to the Bryn Coed tract, and if preserved would create a beltway of open space running from Pughtown Road to Miller Road, with only a few islands of unprotected land scattered along its length — the green heart of our township.”
Bryn Coed is the 1,500acre tract along St. Matthews Road that is now the subject of a preservation agreement between its owners and the Natural Lands Trust.
The board estimated that it could make the $275,000 contribution over two years, dipping into its approximately $2 million open space fund.
But David Brown and others said it was evident that Schneider and Jacobs would be hostile to the proposal, so members of the community banded together to present a unified block of support at the Tuesday supervisors’ meeting. When the session began around 7 p.m., the township building was full of residents, young and old, some holding handprinted signs in support of open space — about 90 percent of whom were in favor of the proposal, said Brennan.
Schneider’s comments about the financial benefit to the landowners struck some as naive, she said. “I think it shows a real misunderstanding of the value of open space,” she said. “Open space costs less taxpayer dollars than developed space. But it is a fact of life that people have those views. I guess we need to do more to make sure people understand that, but it is disappointing that someone elected supervisor would come to the job with the point of view that Mr. Schneider does.”
Pam Brown, the French and Pickering conservation director, said of Schneider’s view that the proposal represented a redistribution of wealth that it was the “one of the first times I’ve heard that view expressed. That is his opinion, and he’s entitled to it, but I respectfully disagree.”
David Brown stressed that the issue should not have been that the landowners were profiting from the proposal, since they are giving up in perpetuity the ability to develop the land for a higher price than it is assessed without homes. “The importance is protecting the land, not what someone may or may not be paid for it,” he said. “Looking at land preservation as a matter of what someone paid for it is wrong.”
Resident Jamie McVickar, who works at the Chadds Ford-based North American Land Trust, told Schneider that the taxpayers had already contributed their tax dollars specifically to be spent on open space — regardless of where — and that a new development along that corridor would add half a million dollars to the township’s tax burden.
In an email, McVickar said that Schneider’s comments about redistributing wealth from the middle class, “is exactly what was going to happen: we would be taking our tax dollars and redistributing them to Toll Brothers or whatever developer was going to come in and make millions of dollars from it.”
Ultimately, the supporters went home with a victory in their pockets.
“Mike (Schneider) is not a bad guy,” said landowner Casciato. “He has his opinion. At the end of the day, however, he is there to represent the will of the people. When he (and Jacobs) saw the support the proposal had, they listened to the constituents. They are to be commended for that.”
Most importantly, the 33-year resident of the township said, “50 years from now the view someone has of this place will be the same one we have today.”
“The importance is protecting the land, not what someone may or may not be paid for it. Looking at land preservation as a matter of what someone paid for it is wrong.”
— David Brown