Open Space Tax in Bergen County

By The Franklin Lakes Journal

Published: March 7, 2010

The State of the County address by County Executive Dennis McNerney offered an array of accomplishments and plans for the future. Even though Bergen County enjoys one of the highest credit ratings compared to other counties throughout America, Democrats are mindful of an anti-incumbency wave amongst voters nationwide.

This may have been a factor that brought forth one proposal that has triggered responses from various Republicans who are hopeful of assuming a majority of Freeholder seats in the fall election. One candidate for Freeholder, Franklin Lakes Mayor DeNicola chimed in on the Democrats plan to cut the Open Space Tax in Bergen County. Echoing statements from other Republicans, DeNicola implied that the Democrats are now co-opting Republican ideas as their own.

The Bergen Open Space fund has been a subject of debate for several years now as the projects being funded are now mostly recreational and not focused on open space acquisition. In 2008 7,127,350 was awarded for open space acquisition and 9,750,864 was awarded for recreational projects. Opponents of the open space tax have repeatedly pointed to County funds being used on projects that will only benefit a specific town as inappropriate. Click here to see town by town awards for 1999-2008.

Residents in New Milford, Bergen County are wondering why a small neighborhood park was awarded funds to build a t-ball field with fencing and bleachers that seat up to 150 people. This, residents say, exemplifies an abuse of open space funding since the park is situated on a very small dead end street with only limited parking available. One resident there was previously quoted as saying, “This used to be open space, and now it’s a ballfield of which we already have many”. In neighboring Bergenfield, the preservation of Cooper’s Pond was steep in the scandal ridden legacy of Joseph Ferriero and accusations of inflated prices with the land’s acquisition.

Locally, Oakland has benefited immensely from County grants for the preservation of various open space tracts, and Franklin Lakes was successful in getting significant awards for the purchase of Haledon Resevoir. Wyckoff, while getting an assortment of funding for small projects, has never profited from actual preservation projects. The Wyckoff council is hopeful that their recent application for 1.8 million to help purchase the Russell Farms will be approved..

Readers can click here for a partial list of projects presently under consideration for awards through the Bergen County Open Space fund.