Environmental Commission, Twp. Committee Seek Ways to Enforce Conservation Easement Rules

At the Washington Township Committee’s Public Work Session Meeting on Wednesday, April 13, the governing body and municipality's Environmental Commission sought ways to deal with potential violations of conservation easements in town.

Mayor Ken Short estimated that between 50 and 100 letters were sent out on behalf of the Township Committee to residents who were in potential violation of conservation easements on or near their property.

The letters were the first step in an initiative to work with residents on settling any potential violations.

“Somewhere around the end of May, we’ll take a look at properties, have a discussion with homeowners and determine, if there are violations, how we can rectify them without having to do it in this courtroom,” said Mayor Short.

Despite legal restraints, however, the township has no current plans to set up an inspection process to see if residents are in violation of a conservation easement. This is in part because of financial reasons.

“At this time, no. Many of the older sub-divisions have been looked at either by folks on the committee or on the environmental commission,” said Mayor Short. “If money were no issue, we’d hire an environmental officer and have him go out.”

Still, all sides seemed to agree that public education on this matter was important, especially in a township where approximately 14,000 of its 29,000 acres—slightly less than half—are protected by some form of environmental restriction.

Environmental Commission member Mervyn Haines suggested an idea that would have all new Washington Township residents who live on a property that contains a conservation easement come before a board for an explanation of the property’s restrictions.

“The people then have no excuse to say, ‘I didn’t know there was this easement here’, and they sign off on it,” said Haines. “That goes onto the deed. When that gets transferred, then the new people have to come and they get the same treatment.”

The idea, however, could become a bit burdensome on the township, which experiences an estimated average turnover of a couple hundred residents each year.

“I could just imagine a couple hundred people a year coming through here every time a house turns over,” said Mayor Short. “It’d be great if you could tell everybody ahead of time, but I think it’d just be very, very cumbersome.”