Municipal Open Space Planning
What Planning Services are Available?
DVRPC offers to New Jersey municipalities a program of services, the Open Space and Natural Resource Planning Program, through which a municipality can conduct significant planning to protect its important environmental resources, its land, and its quality of life. This innovative program assists a community in identifying the current state of its resources, works with leaders in articulating what the future should be, involves the public in dialogue, and provides development of specific municipal tools to achieve its vision of the future.
The program's objective is to assist the municipality to achieve its own goals of resource protection and use.
New Jersey municipalities can choose from the following planning services to meet their diverse needs.
Services for New Jersey Municipalities
- Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI)
- Open Space and Recreation Plan
- Farmland Preservation Plan
- Master Plan Conservation Element
- Master Plan Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Plan Elemen
- Ordinance Assistance including Zoning Revisions and Preparation of Specific Ordinances
- Conservation Subdivision Design Ordinance mandating environmentally-sensitive subdivision design and protection of open space
- Greenway Plan
- Build-out Analysis
- GIS Mapping Services
- Free Services for municipalities working with DVRPC
- Open Space Trust Fund - Campaign Assistance
- Education/Training Programs & Workshops
- Funding & Grant - Writing Assistance
Information
Brochure
[6.4 MB .pdf]
Services are available to municipalities of any county.
Click on brochure to see costs of services and DVRPC subsidies for municipalities
within Mercer, Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties.
Why does a Community Need Planning?
- Enhances quality of life
- Manages growth
- Saves money
- Increases property values
- Meets active and passive recreation needs
- Provides a basis for creative economic development
- Strengthens community identity
Costs and Financial Assistance
DVRPC provides subsidies for municipalities within Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Mercer counties. Unsubsidized services are available to all other NJ municipalities.
DVRPC will assist a municipality to identify and apply for funding that may underwrite part of the cost of Open Space and Natural Resource Planning Services. DVRPC will even draft your grant application!
The municipal contribution to the total cost of Open Space & Recreation Planning can often be covered by a municipality's Open Space Trust Fund.