Open space on the agenda

Township proposes revising local ordinance to reflect state law, allowing funding to go toward open space maintenance

It looks like Franconia is open to changes when it comes to open space.

A change in state law allows the township to use open space funding for maintenance of open space properties, Township Manager Jon Hammer said at the May 21 Franconia Township Board of Supervisors meeting. Previously, the funding could only be used for acquiring the land or purchasing development rights to preserve the land.

A proposed revision to the township’s existing open space ordinance to reflect the change in state law could be voted on at the board’s Monday, June 18 meeting.

“It’s not changing the tax we collect or anything like that?” board member Robert Nice asked at the May 21 meeting. “It’s just how we can spend and invest some of what we are collecting now?”

“That’s exactly right,” township solicitor Frank Bartle said.

The township passed its current ordinance under the state law at the time, he said.

“They have now liberalized that legislation to allow you to do things such as maintenance and pay it out of that fund,” Bartle said. “You’re now giving yourself the full latitude of what the enabling legislation allows, so you can now spend money on these things which you previ-

ously couldn’t and would continue not to be able to do if you didn’t pass this ordinance.”

In another open space-related matter, Hammer said a draft copy has been prepared for an update to the township’s open space plan.

“Within the plan, we’ve addressed essentially three areas,” engineer Russell Dunlevy, of Gilmore & Associates,

said.

Open space preservation, including identifying some properties the township may want to add to open space, is one of those areas, he said.

“We also took a look at your existing recreation facilities and came up with some potential improvements,” Dunlevy said.

The third area looked at was the township trail system, he said.

One of the questions previously raised was where the township should be

spending its open space money, he said.

“This is kind of step one of that, which is, here’s some places you could spend the money,” Dunlevy said.

Another thing to be considered is how to leverage the open space money, he said.

“I like using the money you have and getting some OPM,” [other people’s money] Dunlevy said, “either through grants or open space funds.”

Leveraged borrowing is another possibility, he said.

“The rate you can borrow

money at is pretty cheap,” Dunlevy said.

In regards to the recreation facilities, he said the township may want to add amenities it does not now have or to add a park on the western side of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

“We also identified a whole bunch of maintenance things you could do,” he said.

The board is currently reviewing the open space update; no date has been set for a vote on it, Hammer

said.

Questions about the township’s open space programs were raised after Franconia hiked its property tax by 19 percent for the 2015 budget and laid off 10 township employees, including four fulltime and two part-time police officers. Those moves came after six years of deficit spending that had been masked by money being transferred to the township general fund from other township funds, primarily the restricted-use open space fund, township officials said.

A .25 percent earned income tax, approved by the voters in a referendum, funds the open space programs. The tax brings in about $1 million per year, most of which is used to repay loans taken out for previous open space purchases, Hammer said. Since 2016, an additional just over $56,000 per year is being paid into the open space fund for 20 years to repay the money that was transferred out of it, he said.