OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PLAN

OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PLAN GUIDELINES
FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE GREEN TRUST PLANNING INCENTIVE

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Green Acres Program

P.O. Box 412

Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0412

(609) 984-0570

July, 1997

The purpose of Open Space and Recreation Plan Guidelines is to provide assistance to local governments in preparing an open space and recreation plan (OSRP). It outlines the OSRP items that are needed to participate in the Green Trust Planning Incentive (P1) funding category. The P1 category awards 25% grant and 75% loan funding to a local government to acquire lands identified in its OSRP. A local government must also have established, and be collecting an open space tax, pursuant to P.L. 1997, Chapter 24. Under this law, counties and municipalities may assess a tax, approved by voter referendum, for the following purposes, or any combination of these purposes, as determined by the local government:

(a) acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes;

(b) development of lands acquired for recreation and conservation purposes;

(d) acquisition of farmland for farmland preservation purposes;

(e) preservation of historic properties, including the acquisition of such properties for historic preservation purposes; or

(f) payment of debt service on indebtedness issued or incurred by a local government for any of the purposes (a), (b), (d) or (e).

Please be advised that the P1 program only funds land acquisition for recreation and conservation purposes. The P1 and these guidelines are intended to assist local governments with the development and implementation of an OSRP. It is also designed to offer an incentive to other local governments to adopt an open space tax and prepare an OSRP. Given the individual open space and recreation needs of each local government, Green Acres will be flexible in its review of an OSRP.

There are several advantages for a local government that participates in the P1 category:

1. Once an OSRP has been approved by the Green Acres Program, a local government can acquire lands identified in its OSRP without making multiple individual applications for Green Trust funding to acquire those lands.

2., An OSRP provides a way to protect open space and recreation resources important to the local government.

3. An open space tax is a fiscally superior method to fund open space preservation.

4. Open space and recreation planning is more efficient and cost effective when supported by a stable source of funding like a tax and an OSRP.

As of July 1997, 12 counties and 34 municipalities in New Jersey have passed an open space tax or an open space funding mechanism by voter referendum. That many have passed with large pluralities is a testament to the public support open space and recreation enjoy and the importance New Jerseyans place on them. While the decision to assess an open space tax and develop an OSRP is a local one, the Green Acres Program encourages all New Jersey local governments to explore this option as a way to preserve natural resources to meet their current and future open space and recreation needs.

Before you begin preparing your OSRP, you may be asking yourself, what is an OSRP and why should we prepare one? These are good questions which need to be answered.

What is an OSRP? An OSRP articulates a local government’s vision of open space and recreation. It should establish a philosophical and practical justification for the protection and preservation of open space and recreation opportunities. The purpose of an OSRP is to provide a framework for implementation. Through an OSRP, you identify and examine .open space and recreation resources important to you and lay out ways to protect and enjoy them.

Why is it important to plan for open space and recreation? Without planning, the appearance of a community, the quality of life of its residents and of its natural resources can be dramatically altered in a short period of time due to random changes in land use. We all know of areas that have undergone suburbanization and its associated impacts. No one wants to live in a community that does not have parks or recreation areas. Yet in order to provide these for residents, a local government must plan for them. Open space and recreation should be considered as part of the public infrastructure, just like roads, schools and utilities. No community would build a road without establishing the need for it and planning where it should go. The same is true for open space and recreation.

THE OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PLANNING PROCESS

Before getting started, you need to consider how the OSRP will be prepared. F-low you do this is your decision, but here are four common approaches:

1. Agency Centered: The planning is directed by a single agency. The agency may have a network of citizen advisors, but the authority to make decisions about program agenda, direction and selection among proposals is retained by the agency.

2. Agency-Advisory Committee: An agency sets up an advisory committee to actually do the planning, empowering the committee with at least some autonomy regarding how they will do it.

3: Interagency Task Force: A number of agencies join as equals to create a new (but probably temporary) organization to carry out a specific planning task which involves them all. Once created, that organization runs its own show.

4. Citizen Advisory Committee: An organization structured outside of local government, though possibly including officials among its members and possibly receiving financial and staff assistance from the local government.

Open space and recreation planning employs a broad brush approach that touches many topics such as land use, natural resources, finances, politics and demographics. It is vital that whichever way you choose to develop and implement your OSRP, be sure there is a multi-discipline focus. Some points to consider: 1. Is the range of planning topics broader than that of any single agency? - One agency cannot make effective plans within another agency’s political domain or turf. If the planning is placed squarely within one agency, the effective planning scope may be no wider than that agency’s range.

2. Do they have enough time to do the ]ob? - An intensive planning project may constitute an overload for the entity taking it on. Can and will members spend the time required for the project?

3. Can adequate resources be devoted to the project? - Preparation of an OSRP requires staff

and funding. People preparing the OSRP will need these and you will need to budget accordingly.

Another point to remember is that preparing an OSRP is hardly a revolutionary idea. The Municipal Land Use Law at 40:55D-28 discusses the contents of a municipal master plan. Included in this discussion is the inclusion of recreation and conservation plan elements that contain man y of the components of an OSRP. Counties are also empowered to prepare a master plan that includes open space and recreation considerations under the New Jersey County and Regional Planning Act, N.J.S.A. 40:27-2 et seq.

You should also remember that you have an important ally in your OSRP efforts, your environmental commission. The commission is empowered by statute to conduct many of the activities needed for preparing an OSRP such as developing an open space inventory or researching the use of open lands in your community.

The local master plan is intended to be a comprehensive treatment of various issues facing the community. Open space, and the role it plays in defining the character of the community should be an integral component of the master planning effort. The master plan sets forth goals and policies which the community has adopted for managing growth. These goals and policies will affect the preservation and maintenance of open space and recreation resources in a community.

The planning process should seek out the involvement of individuals, agencies and organizations in the community who have responsibility for, or an interest in, the current and future provision of recreation opportunities and the protection of open space resources.

These include the following:

- officials having responsibility for decisions affecting open space and recreation in the community;

- officials having responsibility for education, public works and water supply with which coordination is needed for effective operation of a local open space and recreation program;

- representatives of conservation groups, private recreation providers and .recreation users.

Most importantly, you need public participation as a part of your planning process. After all, the OSRP is supposed to say what are the open space and recreation needs of local residents. How are your going to know what these are if you do not ask them? Public participation should be sought in both the preparation and implementation of the OSRP. The methods for encouraging citizen participation, while left to the choice of the community, should insure that all segments of the population are provided opportunities to present their views on open space and recreation concerns.

The open space and recreation policies of the State are contained in a document known as the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). The SCORP serves as New Jersey’s plan for the expenditure of state and federal funds for open space preservation and recreational development. Its policies also provide guidance to all levels of government and the private sector on open space and recreation issues. A summary of the current SCORP is available from the Green Acres Program.

The OSRP should seek consistency with the appropriate open space and recreation policies of the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan (State Plan). The State Plan contains several open space and recreation policies that pertain to local governments. As municipalities seek center designation, consistency with State Plan policies will require communities to examine their open space and recreation resources.

The planning process can include a regional approach where appropriate. Since natural resources which form the basis of an open space system transcend simple political boundaries, it is important to look beyond your own borders. Rivers, forests and mountains are rarely the domain of one local government. Coordinating your OSRP with neighboring local governments, where possible, can assist in accomplishing your goals and be more cost effective.

The planning process should utilize current and accurate natural resource, population, socioeconomic, recreation participation and demand data. It is recognized that data may not be readily available or that supplementary data may be needed. Communities are encouraged to develop locally needed data which is unavailable from other sources.

OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PLAN

Green Acres requires the following items in an Open Space and Recreatior~ Plan. The organization of the OSRP and level of detail given to each item are at the discretion of the local government.

1. Executive Summary: a summary of the plan’s origin, purpose, planning processes and findings, major goals it establishes, and actions it proposes.

2. Goals and Policies: the local govemment’s goals and policies should be clearly stated and relate to the applicant’s philosophy of open space and recreation.

3. Inventory: documentation of existing public and private open space and recreation resources and opportunities. The inventory is to include the size, location, ownership, and usage.

4. Needs Analysis: an analysis of the adequacy of the current open space and recreation system, as documented in the Inventory, to satisfy present and future needs.

5. Resource Assessment: the assessment of lands with open space and recreation potential and interest, and the opportunity they possess for meeting the public’s needs.

6. Action Plan: a program of actions to guide the orderly and coordinated execution of a plan’s goals and policies.

7. System Map: a map of the open space and recreation system showing the location and general configuration of all existing public and private open space and recreation resources and sites identified as having open space and recreation potential.