Tag: Open Space Trust Fund

Ridgewood joins group seeking return of Open Space Trust Fund

JUNE 20, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER

Ridgewood has joined a group of municipalities that is seeking restoration of full funding to the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund.

Members of the Village Council unanimously approved last week a resolution endorsing the change, and a copy of legislation will be forwarded to the county executive and freeholder board.

The open space trust fund is fueled by the county open space tax, which all property owners currently pay at a rate of a quarter of one cent per $100 of real property valuation. Ridgewood, led by the village’s Open Space Committee, has asked the county to increase the rate to a full one cent per $100.

In a May 20 letter from the Open Space Committee to Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and the freeholders, Chairman Ralph Currey noted that the county’s open space tax had been set at the one cent figure between 2004 and 2009. During that period, Ridgewood and other municipalities received “vital support” from the trust fund for open space purchases and recreation facility improvements.

The county then slashed the tax by 75 percent in 2010, and “in essence dried up the open space money,” according to Tom Riche, the Village Council representative to the Open Space Committee.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/village-joins-growing-group-seeking-return-of-trust-fund-1.1038614#sthash.nHecbzBn.dpuf