Protected Open Space Inventory

DVRPC maintains an inventory of protected public and private open space in the Delaware Valley. The inventory tracks federal, state, county and municipally owned lands (public open space), and preserved farmland and non-profit protected open space (private open space). State, county and municipal programs preserve farmland by purchasing development rights with public funds. Land trusts and conservancies ("non-profits") protect privately owned open space lands from development by purchasing easements or by acquiring land outright with a combination of public and private monies.

DVRPC updates this inventory as new information becomes available. The most recent update was completed in February 2008.

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Year 2007 Delaware Valley Protected Open Space by Ownership (acres)
	Publicly Owned Lands							Privately Owned Lands
County	Federal	State	County	Municipal	Total Protected Public Open Space	Protected Public Open Space as Percent of Total Area¹⁰	Protected Public Open Space Acreage per 1000 population¹¹	Preserved Farmland	Land Trust or Privately Protected	Total Protected Private Open Space	Protected Private Open Space as Percent of Total Area¹⁰
Bucks¹	0	12,880	7,919	11,979	32,778	8.43%	54.8	9,982	8,046	18,028	4.64%
Chester²	1,288	7,218	5,956	8,787	23,249	4.81%	53.6	24,875	44,506	69,381	14.34%
Delaware³	729	2,584	1,659	4,630	9,602	8.15%	17.4	236	2,903	3,139	2.66%
Montgomery⁴	1,964	3,774	4,899	9,129	19,766	6.39%	26.4	6,940	3,661	10,601	3.43%
Philadelphia⁵	373	259	8,267	1,450	10,349	11.97%	6.8	0	488	488	0.56%
PA TOTAL	4,354	26,715	28,700	35,975	95,744	6.91%	24.9	42,033	59,604	101,637	7.33%
Burlington⁶	4,001	154,556	3,439	10,424	172,420	33.49%	407.2	25,841	1,739	27,580	5.36%
Camden⁷	0	20,002	2,361	4,050	26,413	18.57%	51.9	1,313	0	1,313	0.92%
Gloucester⁸	0	5,447	1,921	4,307	11,675	5.61%	45.8	10,232	302	10,534	5.06%
Mercer⁹	0	4,208	8,614	8,875	21,697	15.01%	61.9	5,560	2,066	7,626	5.28%
NJ TOTAL	4,001	184,213	16,335	27,656	232,205	23.00%	151.0	42,946	4,107	47,053	4.66%
REGION TOTAL	8,355	210,928	45,030	63,631	327,949	13.69%	60.9	84,979	63,711	148,690	6.21%

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Open Space Highlights and Trends

Protected public and private open space lands represent 14 percent and 6 percent of the region's area respectively
Public protected lands in the Delaware Valley increased by about 18,000 acres since DVRPC's 2004 inventory, although all but 2,000 acres of this increase occurred in Burlington County.
The rate of increase in publicly owned open space between 2004 and 2007 was only half that of the 2001 to 2004 period.
Some protected open space gains and losses are attributable to more accurate mapping, not actual acquisitions or sell-offs. This is evident with regard to Pennsylvania's public lands, which, according to GIS data, registered a slight decrease during the 2004 to 2007 period. In reality, public land acreage almost certainly increased, although the gain was most likely very small.
Although public lands represent over 14 percent of the region's area, the analysis shows that these lands are not evenly distributed among the counties. Burlington County alone contains almost 53 percent of the region's public lands.
While Burlington County has by far the greatest amount of public land, both in terms of total area and acres per 1,000 population, most of this area is for conservation purposes in the Pine Barrens, and is therefore less accessible to the majority of the county's-and the region's-population.
The most dramatic and consistent gains in protected open space across the region since DVRPC's last inventory in 2004 occurred in farmland preservation. During this period, preserved farmland increased by almost 7,000 acres in Pennsylvania and nearly 11,000 acres in New Jersey.
Non-profit protected open space increased by nearly14,000 acres since 2004, although almost all this gain occurred in Chester County, and may partially reflect the use of a new data source for Chester County non-profit lands.
Community gardens in the City of Philadelphia and other urban areas are important to recognize and maintain. While not inventoried due to their small scale and uncertain ownership status, they provide visual relief, safe havens, community pride and fresh, healthy produce for neighborhood residents.

Open Space Inventory
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