| Warrington, Pennsylvania:
A Green Infrastructure Approach to Leveraging Local Priorities Presentation by: Wednesday, December 3
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| Preinkert Field House – Conference Room 1112V University of Maryland College Park
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Summary
In 2012, the citizens of Warrington Township passed an Open Space Referendum, authorizing the Board of Supervisors to borrow up to $3 million over 20 years to purchase and protect open space. While the commitment to invest $3 million to acquire and improve public lands, trails, parks, and historic sites is significant, the Township recognized that to accomplish their local open space priorities would require stretching these dollars as far as possible. The University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center (EFC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worked together with the Township to inform local investment decision-making. EPA provided resource mapping to help the community identify and prioritize parcels based on their ecological and environmental benefits, and the EFC identified a number of overlapping local priorities, potential partnership opportunities, and additional funding programs the Township could leverage. Learn how using a green infrastructure approach to resource management will enable this community to amplify the impact of their financial commitment to open space preservation.
Monica Billig, Program Manager – Pennsylvania Satellite Office – Monica serves as the EFC’s Pennsylvania satellite office director, managing multiple water resource financing projects with municipal clients across the state. In this role, she works directly with municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay region to assess municipal stormwater management programs and provide financing recommendations enhance level of service. She communicates with decision makers, policy experts, and legal experts in the environmental field providing insight into the regulatory landscape and disseminates project findings via policy briefs, research papers, and presentations. Ms. Billig joined the EFC in August 2010, first holding a position as a program/graduate assistant. Since receiving her Master in Public Policy at the University of Maryland in May 2012, Monica joined the EFC full time. Prior to the EFC, Monica worked as a Research Associate at edCount, LLC, a Washington, DC based education policy consulting firm specializing in policy related to assessments, standards, and accountability. Monica received her B.A. in Economics and a minor in Mathematics from Smith College in Northampton, MA.
Jennifer Cotting, Research Associate – Green Infrastructure – Jennifer is a Research Associate for Green Infrastructure at the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center. Prior to this she served for three years as the Center’s Assistant Director and five years as a Program Manager. As a Research Associate, Jennifer manages EFC’s green infrastructure programming throughout the Mid-Atlantic covering large landscape conservation and habitat management, as well as urban land use and stormwater management. Jennifer serves as a guest lecturer on green infrastructure financing for Virginia Tech’s Executive Masters in Natural Resources Program as well as the Conservation Fund’s course Strategic Conservation Planning Using a Green Infrastructure Approach. Current and recent projects include: Assessing Federal Green Infrastructure Programming; Improving Local Government Capacity to Implement Watershed Planning; and EFC’s Sustainable Maryland Certified program. She received her M.S. in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland and her B.A. in Communications from Marymount University.