public land

Environmental Defense Foundation Files Petition with Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Posted on January 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

The group fighting to conserve Pennsylvania’s public forest and park lands asked the state’s highest court for help again today. The Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation obtained a landmark ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court six months ago. The court declared that money from the sale of natural resources such as natural gas on Pennsylvania’s public forest and park lands cannot be used to fill gaps in the state budget.

The Foundation has today filed with the Supreme Court a Petition for Extraordinary Jurisdiction. After its landmark ruling in June, the high court returned the case to the Commonwealth Court with direction to address the issues raised by the Foundation consistent with the high court’s ruling. The Commonwealth Court has not taken any action to date and the latest budget, which was finalized after the high court’s ruling, spends at least $96 million from the sale of public natural resources to pay general government expenses for the current budget year.

Under Pennsylvania’s constitution, public forest and park lands are part of a public trust owned by the people of Pennsylvania. The government must protect the natural resources of this public trust and cannot sell them to balance the budget, as it has done since 2009. Yet the budget just finalized for this fiscal year continues this trend. To date, more than $1.1 billion from the sale of public natural resources has been used to fill gaps in the state budget.

The Foundation argues in its filing that without the high court’s oversight, the government will not heed its ruling and will continue to degrade public forest and park natural resources to balance the budget. New budget negotiations for the upcoming fiscal year begin in February.

Read the petition here

Court Hears Arguments in Critical Case for Pennsylvania Parks

Posted on April 9, 2016

On December 7, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Borough of Downington v. Friends of Kardon Park, a dispute which has lasted more than seven years. The issue at stake is whether Downington Borough can sell acres of parkland to developers, who would construct retail space and housing units on the site, without public or judicial oversight.

The implications of this case are critical for the future of Pennsylvania’s parks; if Downington is granted the right to sell its public parkland, countless other cash-strapped municipalities might follow suit. Recognizing the danger of this unprecedented threat to public open space, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association filed an amicus curiae brief with the court.

Video of the proceedings was captured by PCN.

Federal Conservation Easement Tax Incentive Helps Owners Conserve Land for the Public Benefit

Posted on December 15, 2015

Below is a PALTA opinion piece published in Pennsylvania media outlets in December 2015:

Helping Owners Conserve Land for the Public Benefit
by Andrew M. Loza, executive director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association

Farms and forests, natural areas, green spaces in our neighborhoods—all help define the places that we think of as home. These lands don’t just provide scenic beauty; they safeguard drinking water, reduce flooding, provide food and timber, protect wildlife and more.

They are also endangered. Between 1992 and 2005, urban land in Pennsylvania increased 131.4 percent—more than in all the previous millennia of human habitation. While the Great Recession brought the feverish pace of development down, lands crucial to our environmental, social and economic well being continue to be consumed for new development every day. Once these lands are gone, they are gone.

That’s why it’s more important than ever that we protect our most important unprotected green spaces. Land trusts do this by working in cooperation with landowners to implement a creative form of conservation that keeps lands open, natural and available for farming, forestry or other uses that involve minimal development — while also keeping them in the hands of private owners. A willing landowner may donate a conservation easement to a land trust. This conservation easement restricts development of the land in support of a stated conservation purpose. The generous landowner can use the donation to receive a modest tax deduction against her federal taxes.

This approach has seen tremendous success; Pennsylvania land trusts now hold conservation easements on 250,000 acres of irreplaceable green space—an area much larger than Delaware and Philadelphia Counties combined—thanks to the generosity of people and a small tax incentive.

Unfortunately, Congress allowed a 2006 law to expire that made sure that the tax incentive could be used by families with modest incomes, leaving in limbo landowners who want to conserve their lands.

The clock is ticking for our Senators to take urgent action to restore this vital conservation tool and make it permanent. Politicians from across the political spectrum support such action — the U.S. House voted to do so with overwhelming bipartisan support. U.S. Senator Casey has supported the legislation. For our sake and for future generations, we ask him to strongly advocate in the Senate for its passage. We ask Senator Toomey, who has not joined this bipartisan effort, to join his fellow Senators in making this crucial conservation tool permanent.

Amicus Brief Filed to Defend Community Parks

Posted on July 1, 2014 Leave a Comment

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association filed an amicus curiae brief in Commonwealth Court on April 21 in defense of parkland and open space held by governments for the benefit of the public per the discussion at the March policy committee meeting and the authorization of PALTA’s board. The catalyst of the brief is the litigation regarding Kardon Park (Petition of the Borough of Downingtown). If the court adopts the amicus curiae’s arguments (and it should!), PALTA will have performed a great service for conservation and parks in Pennsylvania.

Commonwealth Court Brief Amicus Curiae

Urgent! Tell Senators: Don’t let parks be sold for quick cash

Posted on September 14, 2012 Leave a Comment

The Pennsylvania Senate is poised to vote on a bill that, depending on how the land was acquired, will allow county and local governments to sell local parks for easy cash. A vote on the bill could take place the week of October 1. If the bill passes, it goes to Governor Corbett for his signature.

House Bill 2224 puts much-loved parks at risk of being sold for short-term gain or on a political whim. It repeals longstanding rules that ensure government cannot sell parks and other greenspaces if the lands benefit the public.

Please tell your Senator to amend HB 2224 to protect our parks. Contact them at their district office THIS WEEK.

In addition to putting our parks and greenspaces at risk, the bill:

Violates the trust and good faith of landowners who donated property for a dollar or sold property to the government at a bargain price with assurances that the land would be used for a public purpose.
Forces generous people to second guess whether to sell their land at a bargain price for a good cause — a new park — because it shows that government is not to be trusted with such gifts.
Discards the fair and balanced process traditionally used to determine whether public land can be sold.

Contact your Senator BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! Tell him or her to insist on an amendment to HB 2224 to protect our parks.

Legislation that assists municipalities in achieving the reuse of abandoned, blighted, unused and unusable properties in municipal ownership is welcome, but such legislation should not put the parks and greenspaces – places that people have trusted would always be there — at risk of being sold for short sighted gain or political purposes.