We did it!Now get back to work
By KRISTA GROMALSKI
I contributed a visioning column to The River Reporter in 2004 as Pike County, PA’s residents and leaders were opening a dialogue that would hopefully result in sustainable and balanced solutions to the area’s skyrocketing population and development pressure.
Not so long before this, such discussions divided our community into factions of “tree huggers” versus “developers.” It’s a rift familiar to many small communities faced with the challenges of protecting the things they love about the place they live while also fostering a robust economy that provides residents with jobs, social services and amenities.
Grappling with these seemingly divergent needs isn’t easy in a close-knit community such as Pike County, which, for more than a decade, has been growing at a pace that often exceeds the financial and technical resources of its townships and boroughs.
As we have learned, however, it is possible to find a balance. It requires respect for our neighbors and a willingness to roll up our sleeves and work side by side to achieve our goals. The formula is never perfect, of course, but it has resulted in many positive accomplishments.
Through the educational outreach efforts of the Alliance to Keep Pike Green—a coalition of conservationists, business people, builders, landowners, local officials and community residents—in November 2005, 68 percent of Pike County voters passed the $10 million Scenic Rural Character Preservation Bond. We sent a clear message that we are committed to preserving our high quality of life through good planning and active conservation.
Our commissioners responded by bolstering Pike’s planning staff so that it can offer help and funding to townships and boroughs interested in preparing for growth in their communities and deciding what their neighborhoods and business centers will look like in years to come. The Scenic Rural Character Preservation Program was established in 2006—overseen by a volunteer board representing a broad range of community interests—to provide guidelines for how municipalities can access bond funds.
So far Lackawaxen, Shohola, Delaware, Blooming Grove, Greene and Palmyra Townships have been awarded more than $165,000 for zoning ordinance updates, comprehensive and open space plans and multi-municipal plans.
In early October of this year, the board presented guidelines for how willing landowners can protect their property by outright sale or by placing their land in a conservation agreement.
The Delaware Highlands Conservancy has used these types of conservation options to help willing landowners throughout the Upper Delaware region—including some in Pike County—to protect almost 10,000 acres.
Hand-in-hand with these achievements, Pike’s planning office completed a new comprehensive plan, is finishing an open space, greenways and recreation plan, and has established the Agricultural Land Preservation Program that recognizes working farms and managed forests as valued economic and natural resources.
Much has been accomplished in Pike County in a relatively short time due to the active participation of its community members—not just a small faction of “greenies” and “activists,” but a committed majority of people with diverse backgrounds and interests who all share a love for the place where we live and who are willing to contribute time and talents to ensure that it is here for future generations to enjoy.
This is a success story beyond what I imagined possible back in 2004, but it is not where the story ends.
Pike County’s population explosion and development pressure have not dissipated. Now is not the time for us to pack it in and call it a day. Now is the time to take a deep breath and continue to work together to create the future that we want for the place that we love.
Krista Gromalski is a board member of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy and co-founder of Heron’s Eye Communications.
