Board to OK $11M in open space grants
WEST CHESTER >> The Chester County commissioners are expected to vote on approving more than $11 million in open space preservation grants, including two that would go toward the project to purchase and preserve the historic Bryn Coed Farms in West Vincent.
Other projects include a public nature preserve in Elk, an extension of the Struble Trail, an addition to Marsh Creek State Park, and an addition to a public park in North Coventry.
Bill Gladden, the director of the county’s Department of Open Space, said that the amount of land saved through the contracts
would total about .43 percent of the total acreage of the county. He noted that as of today, 27 percent of the county’s 485,845 acres are preserved as open space.
“We’re getting there,” Gladden said. “These are all high quality projects.”
Gladden said that of the $11,120,750 in grants for 12 projects, some of the money will be forwarded to organizations or townships that will us it as leverage to get additional funding from the state or other sources. Those funding streams are sometimes only available when a “down payment” of sorts is made at the local level.
“Not all of these projects will cross the finish line this year,” Gladden told the commissioners, none of whom questioned or commented on the list of projects. “But when they do, they will total about ½ a percent of the county’s acreage.”
Gwendolyn Lacy, the executive director of the Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County, which would receive three grants totaling $894,000, confirmed that the county’s method of approving the funds “up front” was helpful in allowing organizations to prove the project’s worthiness to other fundings sources.
“It takes a while to leverage all the funds and put these projects together,” Lacy said Tuesday.
She also said that the county’s practice of having a window of time to get the project completed made it possible to work around unexpected contingencies. She noted, for example, that a project that had been finalized this week for a conservation easement for land in Kennett had been approved by the commissioners
“The county commissioners are deserving of our thanks for their ongoing strategic investments in saving open spaces and agricultural lands.”
— Natural Lands Trust President Molly Morrison
in 2014.
“We have been partnering with the county for several years, and this is great,” she said. “Hallelujah! We are ecstatic.”
By far the largest number of awards are proposed to go to the Natural Lands Trust, the media-based regional land preservation and conservation organization that is spearheading the purchase to the 1,500 acre Bryn Coed Farms land.
If the commissioners approve the contract proposals as expected, the trust will receive $9.4 million for six projects that would preserve 1,721 acres of land through conservation easements or public access projects.
“The county commissioners are deserving of our thanks for their ongoing strategic investments in saving open spaces and agricultural lands,” said Natural Lands Trust President Molly Morrison. “Their leadership in this arena contributes in a huge way to the quality of place that is so essential to Chester County.”
The grants to the trust include two for the Bryn Coed Farms property, which the organization announced last year it had agreed with the current owners to purchase and save through a combination of open space
preservation and targeted large-lot development.
Those two grants include $3.75 million from the county’s Preservation Partnership Program to help purchase 993 acres in East Pikeland, West Pikeland and West Vincent, part of a total cost of $8.98 million. The parcel would include lots for sale of no less than 25 acres each, Gladden said. The other would total $4.25 million to purchase 440 acres which would be part of a publicly accessible nature preserve. The total project cost is estimated at $11.33 million.
The other NLT projects getting grant awards on Gladden’s list include a contract for $400,000 to purchase 57 acres adjacent to Marsh Creek State Park in Wallace. The land would be transferred to the state for an addition to the park. Also included are a $421,750 contract to purchase 75 acres for an extension of the Struble Trail in Wallace, and a $600,000 contract to purchase 155 acres in Honey Brook and West Caln that would become an addition to the William Penn State Forest.
The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County projects slated to receive funds include $500,000 for the purchase of 182 acres of the Patricia DuPont Foundation property in Elk for a nature preserve; $214,400 for the purchase of 24 acres in London Britain for an addition to the White Clay Creek Preserve; and$180,000 for purchase of 24 acres of the Muller property in Kennett to extend the Kennett Greenway.
Others receiving funds include the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, which would receive $400,00 to help purchase 98 acres of farmland in West Vincent for a conservation easement with public trails adjacent to Bryn Coed; and the Green Valleys Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania, which would receive $180,000 for the purchase of 22 acres for an addition to the Welkinweir Preserve in East Nantmeal.