Williams supervisors OK development rights buys

Township to spend $192,000 to help preserve two parcels.

Two Williams Township properties with tributaries containing brook trout would be protected from development under open space plans.

Williams supervisors last week approved giving $192,000 toward purchasing conservation easements on nearly 65 acres.

The properties are 27.25 acres owned by the Russell family at 180 Ballek Road, and 37 acres belonging to the Nehoda family at 665 Browns Drive.

When land is placed in a conservation easement, an attachment is made to the deed excluding the land from being developed while ownership is maintained by the property owner.

The land included in the easement continues to be taxed by the township, county and school district although the millage rates are frozen at the amount when the transaction is complete.

Ron Hineline, vice-chairman of the township Land Preservation Board, told supervisors the Russell property has an appraised easement value of $163,000. The Nehoda land is valued at $224,685.

Williams will pay for its share — roughly $3,000 an acre — with money from its open space fund, which is about $2 million, Hineline said.

If the deal is completed, the township and county would each spend $81,750 for the Russell property and $112,329 each for the Nehoda land.

Laura Baird, a land conservationist for the Heritage Conservancy, said both properties contained significant woodlands, meadows and tributaries to the Delaware River with water quality designated as exceptional value.

The Heritage Conservancy, based in Doylestown, Bucks County, is a conservation organization contracted by the township in an advisory capacity to its open space program.

The township has about 1,200 acres preserved in the program and in a separate program, 585 acres in farmland preservation

“The waterways on both of these properties support brook trout which need high quality water and habitat to exist,’’ Baird said.

The headwaters of Frys Run are located on the Russell property which Baird said has a state designation as an exceptional stream.

On the Nehoda land, there are headwaters to an unnamed tributary to the Delaware River that also has waters designated as exceptional value.

In discussing the plan, supervisors at first were leaning toward allocating the full amount of the appraised value.

Township resident and former supervisor George Washburn urged the supervisors not to approve the total cost.

Hineline said he feels the county will approve its share of the easement purchase.

“I don’t feel county council will deny something like this. There’s about $1 million in the county budget for open space. And county council and the county executive said this is the time to preserve open space,’’ he said.

After the meeting, Halden Ballek, resident and member of the township Planning Commission, said both properties don’t need protection because the geography of the land already makes them unsuitable for development.

“These properties are preserved by their own environment. They have steep slopes and wetlands. You can’t build on that,’’ he said.

According to the goals outlined in the township’s open space plan, attractiveness to development is not the only criteria for preservation.

Other features include the lands value in protecting groundwater, wildlife habitat and unique and environmentally sensitive areas.

In 2004, Williams Township residents approved a referendum to fund the purchase of conservation easements through a .25 percent tax added to the one-percent Earned Income Tax.

In a 2014 voter referendum, the tax was eliminated. It had generated about $411,000 per year.