October 11, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Whitemarsh gives $1.9 million to Erdenheim Farm preservation fund
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Whitemarsh Township announced last week that it will contribute $1.9 million towards the $20 million purchase of the Angus Tract of Erdenheim Farm.

The 98-acre tract is being purchased by the Whitemarsh Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was given first rights by the Dixon family, which owns the farm, to purchase the Angus Tract upon the death of Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr.

Dixon died on Aug. 2, 2006, and the foundation’s option to purchase the land was supposed to expire a year later, but the Dixons decided to extend the purchase option to the end of this year, giving the foundation more time to raise the $14 million for the property and another $6 million for an endowment that would fund the preservation of the land.

With the township’s $1.9 million, the foundation now has $10.5 million in-hand for the purchase, said Kim Sheppard, the foundation’s executive director.

There are also prospects for another $4.5 million from private donors who have not given their final committal. Sheppard is confident that these will come through, which would bring the foundation about three-fourths of the way to its goal.

Most of the $1.9 million from the township comes from an earned income tax increase that township taxpayers supported in last November’s election. The tax increase of .25 percent goes to fund preservation of the township’s open spaces.

The tax increase is expected to bring in about $1.2 million annually, said Joseph Corcoran III, chairman of the township’s board of supervisors, so the rest of the money is likely to come from the township’s reserves or another open space fund of about $800,000. The logistics of how it will be paid, he said, are not complete yet, but the township has the means to fund the total cost.

“We’re in a situation where we can do this responsibly and very easily,” he said.

Sheppard said that, at the rate things are going, the foundation still anticipates making an agreement of sale by the end of the year.

Last Tuesday, the foundation raised $120,000 with its Triple Crown Golf Classic at the Philadelphia Cricket Club in Flourtown.

Also, on Aug. 2 the foundation received $1 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The foundation will not determine what it will do with the Angus Tract until after the purchase, though it is committed to keeping it open and preserving the agricultural aspect of the land.

“The Erdenheim Farm is the centerpiece of 2,000 acres of contiguous open space that buffers us [Montgomery County] from the city,” Sheppard said, referring also to the Morris Arboretum, Fort Washington State Park and more.

The total acreage of Erdenheim Farm is about 450 acres. The Natural Lands Trust has been promised 113 acres of it, and the foundation hopes to eventually purchase the Sheep Tract, another 109 acres of the farm. The Dixon family still owns and lives on another 124 acres.

To make a donation to the purchase, visit the Whitemarsh Foundation Web site at www.whitemarshfoundation.org or call 610-828-5351.