The Haverford State Hospital development plan has been fatally flawed form the outset. Now The Inquirer, with its Sept. 29 editorial "Filling in the Inner Ring: A way to curb sprawl," seems blithely willing to toss the township into the waiting jaws of development to save "cornfields in the exurbs."

The assumption is that Haverford and the rest of the inner ring are already lost, and deserve only pro forma efforts to save what green space remains.

The Haverford Township commissioners have tightly controlled public input, ignored surveys and meetings, and listened only to what they want to hear: How to sell the land to the highest bidder to reduce taxes. They made no effort to examine a minimal-use plan, one that would involve neighboring communities in saving the property for future generations.

Though The Inquirer does make one good point - that what's really needed is property tax reform - it fails to draw the obvious conclusion. When property tax reform does arrive, which eventually it will, communities that have sold off precious open space for tax income will find those assets to be of fixed or declining value, as the ability to tax real estate is decreased. By then it will be too late. The last open space in Haverford will be effectively a private park surrounding a gated community of McMansions.