According to The Burlington County Times – “…the (Burlington County) Board of Freeholders on Wednesday unanimously approved collecting 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value to fund its Open Space, Recreation and Farmland and Historic Preservation Fund. The levy represents the full amount sanctioned by voters, who approved the taxation in three referendums since 1996.”

Olivia Glenn from the NJ Conservation Foundation and Vice-Chair of the Circuit Coalition along with Bike Burlington County‘s Chair Chaz Carramanna attended the meeting and testified in favor of the levy which will help fund three pending Circuit Trails projects, all of which may be under construction by the spring of 2018. They also asked that the Freeholders consider passing a resolution supporting the Region’s effort to add 180 miles of Circuit Trails in the Greater Philadelphia by 2025.

Those three trails are

1 – The Delaware River Heritage Trail 130 Bypass from Bordentown Township to Roebling (5 miles).

2 – The Rancocas Creek Trail from Amico Island Park in Delran to Pennington Park in Delanco (2 miles)

3 – Phase 1 of the Arney’s Mount Trail (2 miles).

Our suburban counties have some of the oldest and most generous open space funding resources in the country and up to this point, much of it has been used to acquire farmland and disconnected parcels. Leveraging federal funding with County Open Space funds has been an effective tool for building regional trails in Montgomery and Chester Counties.