Urging the Pennsylvania General Assembly to renew the Growing Greener initiative and continue the policy of offering Pennsylvania and Philadelphia residents jobs, recreational activities, and revenue while preserving and investing in the Commonwealth's most valuable natural resources: property, water, and air.

WHEREAS

,

Philadelphia has received over $40 million from Growing Greener for over one hundred environmental initiative projects, including watershed protection, neighborhood redevelopment, environmentally and cost savings energy projects, and community park and recreation renovations; and

WHEREAS

,

Philadelphia's and the Commonwealth's ability to attract growing businesses and to provide the quality of life for its residents is hindered by the loss of open space and farmland, the failure to remediate brownfield sites and restore impaired rivers and streams, the deterioration of our state game, forests and park lands; and

WHEREAS

,

It was calculated in 2007 that the Philadelphia park system increased the market value of residential properties in the City by $689 million, generating an additional $18.1 million annually in property taxes; and

WHEREAS

,

Growing Greener has helped to preserve nearly 34,000 acres of working family farms in Pennsylvania; conserve more than 42,300 acres of threatened natural areas; restore more than 1,600 acres of abandoned mine lands; and enhance access to outdoor recreation through 234 community park projects and 132 park and forest infrastructure projects; and

WHEREAS, Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states that,

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people;”

and

WHEREAS

,

Funds for both Growing Greener I and Growing Greener II are precipitously dropping and the Growing Greener II bond funds will end in 2011 unless the Pennsylvania General Assembly acts to renew the initiative; now therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,

That it hereby urges the Pennsylvania General Assembly to renew the Growing Greener initiative and continue the policy of offering Pennsylvania and Philadelphia residents jobs, recreational activities, and revenue while preserving and investing in the Commonwealth's most valuable natural resources: property, water, and air.

FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Governor Tom Corbett, the Philadelphia delegation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the House and Senate leadership of the Pennsylvania General Assembly as evidence of the grave concern and strong commitment to environmental protection of this legislative body.

End