{"id":23540,"date":"2014-10-15T09:29:20","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T13:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23540"},"modified":"2014-10-15T09:34:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T13:34:32","slug":"oped-vista-2025-offer-balance-of-growth-and-preservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23540","title":{"rendered":"Op\/Ed: VISTA 2025 offer balance of growth and preservation"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Molly Morrison<\/strong>, President, Natural Lands Trust<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
\"MollyMorrison\"<\/a>

Molly Morrison<\/p><\/div>\n

It may be surprising that preservation features so prominently in reports about Chester County\u2019s new economic development plan. The need to balance economic growth and preservation is, however, the innovative and insightful organizing principal of VISTA 2025, the County\u2019s new Economic Development Strategy.<\/p>\n

The plan, prepared with input from business, community, and government leaders, as well as hundreds of county residents, recognizes that there is an essential character \u2013 a quality of place \u2013 that makes Chester County a wonderful place to live and<\/i> plays a vital role in making it one of the most economically vibrant and resilient counties in the country.<\/p>\n

Access to natural materials and proximity to markets once drove the choices industries made about where to locate. In this post-industrial age, access to talented employees is the most important consideration and businesses know that the workers they seek choose communities with an attractive quality of life.<\/p>\n

Chester County, it turns out, has excelled at preserving and enhancing its quality of place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What makes Chester County so special? When the plan\u2019s authors asked residents to define which qualities they value most, they pointed emphatically to the county\u2019s beautiful natural areas, its parks, its streams, and its rolling farmland. According to residents, these open spaces are an essential element of the Chester County experience. The VISTA 2025 report makes is clear that they are essential to its economic health, as well.<\/p>\n

Conservationists have long made the case that preserving open space is good for the economy. The visionaries who launched Chester County\u2019s nationally-recognized open space program 25 years ago \u2013 and the overwhelming majority of voters who approved it \u2013 understood that preserving the rural character of the county would enhance its economy. The County Commissioners, past and present, who have made smart investments in conservation have done so knowing that they are investing in more than pretty places… they are investing in one of the county\u2019s greatest economic assets.<\/p>\n

In VISTA 2025, we have a vision for the County\u2019s economic future that places protecting its quality of place front and center. This means, as the plan states, \u201caugmenting the supply of natural lands for passive recreation and outdoor healthy living activities.\u201d It means maintaining and enhancing our parks and trails. It means preserving and enhancing agriculture.\u00a0 And, it means that, for all of our past success in preserving the county\u2019s farms, fields, and forests, there is much more still to do.<\/p>\n

VISTA 2025 provides a compelling vision for sustaining and growing Chester County\u2019s economy. Technology, finance, tourism, agriculture, education, the arts, big businesses, small businesses\u2026 all play a vital role. But, the plan makes it clear that protecting Chester County\u2019s cherished sense of place is the foundation on which a sustainable, healthy economy must be built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Molly Morrison, President, Natural Lands Trust It may be surprising that preservation features so prominently in reports about Chester County\u2019s new economic development plan. The need to balance economic growth and preservation is, however, the innovative and insightful organizing principal of VISTA 2025, the County\u2019s new Economic Development Strategy. The plan, prepared with input […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,7],"tags":[29,6248,168],"class_list":["post-23540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-chester-county","tag-national-lands-trust","tag-open-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23541,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23540\/revisions\/23541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}