Do you enjoy the wide-open spaces and lush green parks of Easttown Township? Did you know that our Township has a Recreation, Open Space and Environmental Resources Plan? The plan, which was adopted in 1993, can be found on Easttown Township’s website at the following link: https://www.easttown.org/DocumentCenter/View/747. The Easttown Township Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) plans to take a fresh look at this plan, since the Easttown Township 2018 Comprehensive Plan calls for the Recreation, Open Space and Environmental Resources Plan to be updated.
The EAC has been especially interested in the effort to update the 1993 plan. A necessary first step for this multi-year-project is baseline mapping of Easttown's key natural environmental features and sensitive areas. These include watersheds, streams, wetlands, steep slopes, riparian buffers, floodplains, and woodlands. With the exception of woodlands, these natural features have been mapped in various the Township plans, and change slowly overtime. In contrast, vegetative cover patterns can change far more rapidly, within a few decades, so information about this aspect may need updating more frequently.
The EAC also observed that maps contained in the more recent planning documents do not fully capture the details or extent of tree cover in the Township. The Chester County Planning Department assisted the EAC through its computerized photogrammetric mapping process to depict tree canopy in the Township. The result was a quick turnaround success that makes it feasible to now consider proceeding with the next phase of the environmental planning portion, within the overall project. The EAC is grateful to the Chester County Planning Department for its assistance.
What does the mapping result look like and why might this matter? Easttown is bathed in green! The new map reveals that most of the Easttown enjoys tree canopy cover in contrast to the land use map from the 2018 Comprehensive Plan, which shows that only five percent of the Township is either vacant or agricultural. The land use map also depicts that approximately 70 percent of Easttown is in residential use (almost all single-family housing). The new map demonstrates that Easttown nevertheless can be characterized as largely occupied by an inter-connected environmental system that we, as residents, cherish, and which merits planning for, protecting, and enhancing for generations to come.
Finally: as captured in its title, the 1993 Recreation, Open Space and Environmental Resources Plan considers three overlapping topics: recreational facilities, open space, and environmental protection. Accordingly, the EAC has reached out to both the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Planning Commission to begin laying groundwork for a longer-term effort that ideally could start next year with Board of Supervisors approval.