Nostalgia

Things sure have changed.Can you believe Moorestown is considering taking about half of the annual revenues from the Open Space tax levy to pay for the $2.7 million rubber-fields project? It wasn't always that way. No sir-ee.

I remember way back in ...  2009. Yeah, that's right, Aught Nine. I remember because Barack Obama was president and Kanye stole Taylor's MTV limelight. And that's the year the Planning Board prepared the "Open Space and  Recreation Plan Element" (PDF) of the township's Master Plan.

We sure valued peaceful, passive Open Space back in those days. Just read what the Planning Board had to say in 2009 about the history,  the necessity, and the value of Open Space.

Open space is more than the active recreation described so far. Open space provides benefits for the ecology of the Township and region by supporting environmentally sensitive lands such as flood plains, freshwater wetlands, aquifer recharge areas, and the biota that depends on natural systems. Open space creates vistas of scenic beauty, preserves view sheds of historic properties, and provides a setting for buildings and people. Maintaining and preserving open space in the face of development pressure is very difficult, because by their democratic nature, governments are slower to act than commercial interests. The land remaining undeveloped in Moorestown is sought for many different and often competing purposes...

A new impetus was gained by the passage of open space questions on the November 1998 ballot and the Township’s 20 year referendum of November 2007 at the state, county and local level. Concern for the preservation of open space through the long economic progression of the mid- to late-1990’s when development pushed into previously rural areas was galvanized by the positive votes.

"Open Space and Recreation Plan Element," 2009, pp IV-15,16.

"Open Space" in 2009: "Rubber Space in 2011. Things sure have changed. Yes sir-ee.