Municipal Open Space Planning

Why does a Community Need an Open Space Plan? Costs and Financial Assistance

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.

New Jersey municipalities can choose from the following: "market basket" of planning services to meet their diverse needs.

Market Basket of Services for New Jersey Municipalities

• Community Visioning
• Natural Resource Inventory (NRI)
• Open Space and Recreation Plan
• Farmland Preservation Plan
• Master Plan Conservation Element
• Ordinance Assistance including Zoning Revisions and Preparation of Specific Ordinances
• Conservation Subdivision Design Ordinance mandating environmentally-sensitive subdivision design and protection of open space
• Plan Endorsement Assistance
• Greenway Plan
• Build-out Analysis
• GIS Mapping Services
• Free Services
  • Open Space Trust Fund - Campaign Assistance
  • Education/Training Programs & Workshops
  • Funding & Grant - Writing Assistance

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.

Features of DVRPC's municipal planning services:

• Involvement of the leadership of the community throughout the planning process
• Input from the public and information to the residents, incorporated in all services as appropriate
• Assessment, mapping, and reports on current resources and lands
• Development of specific municipal tools to achieve the municipality's vision for the future
• Educational opportunities for municipal staff and leaders
• Connecting the community to regional partners that can assist the municipality
• Written reports and maps at each stage of planning, with color printing of final documents, as appropriate
• A six to eight month time frame for most planning services
• Competitively priced services, subsidized in part through DVRPC's Open Space & Greenways Program.
• Fundraising assistance to offset costs
• Flexibility and choice for the municipality

Pdf versions of the information brochure:
Outside .pdf	Inside .pdf