Biking in Place

The town council meeting last night was a heroic effort. Heroic on the part of the council who stayed there debating the language of the tree ordinance from 5:30 p.m. until 11:20 p.m. when the discussion finally ended. Heroic on the part of three extraordinary environmentalist volunteers, Jerome Sharfman, Joyce Rudin and Warren Manspeizer who sat up front and advocated for the strongest restrictions on protecting the trees. And, heroic on the part of several members of the audience such as Karen Feinblatt of We Care who sat the entire time listening to this 10 month conversation continue. Particularly heroic on the part of the environmentalists and Karen as the council broke for a pizza: not a luxury enjoyed by the remaining people in attendance.

And credit must be given where credit is due. Even with the pizza break, the township council did indeed do their best to assure that individual home owner's did not have their property rights abridged by restricting tree removal in the face of house expansions or pool installations.

Though there are concerns about where a home owner's rights end and public good begins, the rationale proffered for the great debate---- as it may be entitled in the future---could at least be understood and viewed as credible.

But it still leaves open the question of timing and process. Is it possible in this entire 10 month period of writing and re-writing the tree ordinance that these issues of home ownership rights could not be adequately addressed?

As it stands now, there is a special council meeting sheduled for June 2nd at 5:30 p.m. in the hopes, once again, of having a first reading of a completed ordinance.

Again, we must trust that this council will be able to come to grips with what is and what is not acceptable for individual owners, and still create stewardship for the forested areas of the township.

But this is continuing to feel like an endless cycle. We keep pedaling forward yet going nowhere. Until there is something concrete created with the best interest of the environment in mind, this is truly just biking in place. We have changed the scenery, but we have not yet made any movement.