"We think that when the residents voted for open space, they didn't envision artificial-turf fields," said Elizabeth Endres, who, with her husband, created Moorestown Save Open Space.
The debate is a familiar one locally. In 2008, residents sued Evesham when it wanted to use open-space money for an artificial-turf field. A judge ruled in the residents' favor, so the township built the field without open-space money.
The fights raise a vexing question: What, exactly, is open space?
To Moorestown Save Open Space, it is land preserved for passive recreation, such as bird-watching or hiking.
Mayor John Button said that if residents thought that was what the fund was for, they should not have voted for the township's Open Space, Recreation, Farmland, and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
"It is intended for multiple uses," he said.
The five-member council uses money from the fund every year to pay for maintenance of athletic fields. Button is one of three members who supported spending $217,000 to improve the fields. Two voted against it, and the township's open-space committee unanimously opposed the move.
Between $1.6 million and $1.8 million remains in the trust fund, which is replenished with about $464,000 in taxes each year, Button said.
Scott Cooper, chairman of the Moorestown Recreation Advisory Committee, said he didn't understand what was wrong with spending some open-space money on athletic fields. The fund gets replenished each year, and there isn't a large piece of land competing for township dollars right now.
Using the fund to finance some of the debt for the recreation project will save taxpayers some money now, he said.
"If we were working on getting an undeveloped piece of land, I would totally understand this conflict," Cooper said. "But we can fix the existing recreational facilities and have absolutely no impact on Moorestown's ability to buy and maintain a piece of farmland."
