Editor, The Spotlight:
Bethlehem is the sum of its parts: businesses along Delaware Ave, quiet suburban streets, working farms, the Hudson River shoreline, Elm Ave Park, industry around the rail yard, the list goes on. This diversity is what makes Bethlehem a complete community, and it is what will enable us to grow successfully as a community in the 21st century.
We cannot be complacent about any of these parts. We must actively pursue economic development to build our tax base. We must guide residential development to ensure the town doesn’t devolve into sprawl. And we must actively protect our open spaces.
Open space is parks and woods, bike paths, shorelines, and working farms. Open space breaks the monotony of suburban crawl, creates common places where the community can gather, absorbs stormwater to lessen flooding, maintains our cultural heritage, and provides habitat for birds and other wildlife.
Unfortunately, open space is commonly taken for granted until it disappears. How many times have we felt a sense of loss when that small wooded lot down the street grew a house or a farm field was filled with apartment buildings?
Losses like this will continue to happen in town – they’re a natural byproduct of growth. But fostering economic development and guiding residential construction doesn’t mean we have to lose every wooded lot and every working farm and every forest path.
Nearly ten years ago, Bethlehem adopted its first comprehensive plan. That plan speaks again and again of the value of open space and rightfully underscores its importance to maintaining Bethlehem’s character. But sadly, the plan falls short by failing to include a specific program that ensures such places will be preserved for future generations.
That’s why the local citizens group Bethlehem Tomorrow gathered more than 800 signatures calling for the creation of a town open space program.
The signatories live throughout Bethlehem and are united in the view that open space is a vital part of our community that needs to be actively protected through a town open space program. This program must:
Be part of a comprehensive plan. We need economic development and we need strategic residential development. We also need open space to maintain the full character of the town. These three things are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are integral parts of a comprehensive vision for Bethlehem.
Respect landowners. An open space program creates opportunities for landowners who want to keep their land as working farms or undeveloped woods or the like. It is an option, not an obligation. Landowners who don’t want to participate don’t have to.
Be fiscally responsible. We need to be strategic about which properties we choose to invest in rather than scrambling to respond when opportunities arise unexpectedly (the Normanside Country Club is a case in point). We also need to have a clear plan for how to fund any conservation efforts. Fully tapping state, federal, and private funding sources is particularly important to reducing costs to the town – and we can’t take advantage of these monies without a program in place.
Walk the walk. An open space program is meaningless if it is nothing more than conversations and documents on shelves. Open space protection needs to be thoroughly integrated into zoning, development designs, and strategic outreach to potentially interested landowners of parcels both large and small.
The town will soon be launching a review of the comprehensive plan, which means now is the ideal time to create a truly comprehensive plan that includes an active open space program.
As a community, we have learned that we cannot continue to take the unique character of Bethlehem for granted. We must start an open space program now to ensure that Bethlehem grows economically while protecting the places that make it so wonderful. Otherwise, we’ll lose our treasured open spaces forever.
David VanLuven
Delmar
