August 25, 2025, Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 100 It does have potential for linkages, we talked about that. It has potential for connecting large landscapes. It's got significant natural resource features, including it's core forest habitat, you guys know this. The degree of threat from the development is high in this situation. Not simply because of the proposal that is on your plate, but also for all these other things impacting lands around the state. Nature in a neighborhood is an incredibly important community resource and this would make a huge asset for West Orange to have 120 acre forest in the middle of their community. I talked about the ecosystem services are enormous, that's an important part of what factors is for determining suitable for preservation. And then looking at meeting demands for other public purposes. You can not look at a piece of property like this in a vacuum and not look at all the other public demands, including affordable housing and, you know, who knows fire, library, etc. And then looking at what the community goals and plans are for that property. So I looked at all those in respect to the