James Leggate, Pascack Valley Community Life

The details of the application and the costs associated with a survey and other required materials will be covered by two groups, the local Bergen SWAN – Save the Watershed Action Network – and the Open Space Institute, a New York-based organization which helps facilitate land preservation. The resolution approved by the council states that all the costs will be borne by entities other than the borough and that most council members, the borough attorney and borough administrator will review the application before the mayor signs it.

The application is due to the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund by Oct. 31, with some additional materials being accepted until several weeks after.

Lori Charkey of Bergen SWAN said she expected they would be able to cover all the costs, and added that the matching portion the borough would need to pay for the land – the county fund would only pay half, if the application is approved – could likely be covered with funds from a $1 million 2009 settlement through the state’s Green Acres program.

“I think all of the costs are covered,” Charkey said.

Officials had been considering applying for the grant since this past summer, when residents from around the Tandy Woods and area environmentalists proposed the preservation idea to the borough.

The property is located on Hillsdale Avenue near Pascack Road. It is owned by the descendants of the Tandy and Allen developers, who built about 200 homes in the borough starting in 1948. It is the largest undeveloped piece of land remaining in Hillsdale. Nine acres of the 12-acre property are wetlands, but the owners have started the process to apply for a subdivision which would allow them to build three new houses on the other three acres if approved by the planning board.

The owners said at a council meeting earlier this month that they would prefer to sell to the borough.

“My siblings and I would prefer to have [the property remain open space] and urge the town to accept ownership of the property for that purpose,” Meredith Tandy-Spangenberg said, reading a letter.

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http://www.northjersey.com/news/officials-to-seek-grant-for-tandy-woods-property-1.1109856