Township steps up preservation effort
Monroe officials pursuing lands on monthly basis
BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

Joe Montanti

A conservation area, a greenway and walking trails are among Monroe’s open-space preservation goals for 2006.

Officials began working more than a year ago on a priority list of properties to be acquired for open space. The list originally included 1,500 acres, but that number is now the township’s objective for this year alone, said Joe Montanti, who sits on the Planning Board and serves as the township’s environmental protection manager.

“Now, whether we get all of that or not is another story,” Montanti said. “But we’ve got a schedule and we have a plan.”

That plan is to begin pursuing several properties each month. Officials have initiated the acquisition process — which includes contacting the property owner and conducting wetlands delineation and property value appraisals for each property — on the January properties, totaling 152 acres, and the February properties, comprising 443 acres.

Among the February properties are three parcels along the Millstone River that the township hopes to acquire as part of the creation of what Montanti called the Millstone River Watershed Conservation Area. Those three properties come to about 350 acres, Montanti said. Developers have options on all three properties, and one is slated for what was described as a “McMansion” development.

“We are going to go after this property very strongly,” Montanti said. “We don’t want this property developed. We want to preserve that area as a conservation area.”

The three properties are at the top of the list because they all border the Millstone River and are being pursued for development, he noted.

Also among this month’s properties is a wooded parcel at the northern end of Perrineville Road.

“That really pretty stretch of Perrineville Road coming out of Jamesburg, where you’ve got the park on the left, and you’ve got this wonderful forest on the right,” Montanti said. “It’s that forest that we really want to preserve.”

That is where the state comes in.

Montanti has met with a representative of the state Green Acres program to plan its involvement in the project. Instead of contributing funds to each purchase, as the county does using its Open Space Trust Fund, the state plans to buy certain properties.

And one of those is the Perrineville Road forest.

“From a logistics standpoint, it’s easier,” Montanti said. “Rather than having the county, the state and the town contribute, the state says, ‘Look, we’ll pick a series of properties, we’ll just purchase those outright.’ ”

Officials believe the Perrineville Road land will help to establish the greenway that would connect with Thompson Park and the conservation area at the Millstone River.

The February properties also include land that would be used for walking trails. The township already owns a large amount of property in the immediate vicinity of the Manalapan Brook, but in order to install one of the trails, it needs to purchase a 46-acre parcel west of Old Forge Road, as well as a 12-acre piece of land in that area, Montanti said. Both properties are on this month’s list.

Once those lands are secured, residents could leave their cars at the Avenue K Park, which is not yet completed, pick up the trail at the brook across the street and follow it all the way to Jamesburg.

The other walking trail would run from the property the township hopes to purchase at the Millstone River to Applegarth Road.

“This is all attainable within 2006, and I’d like to see both those trails be in place this year,” Montanti said.

Once the state purchases the Perrineville Road properties, he said, the township can begin working on equestrian trails from Thompson Park to the Millstone River.

“We have a lot of land. We haven’t done much at this point in time to create the trails; right now, the real emphasis is saving the land before the developers gobble it up,” Montanti said.

Preventing additional development and creating open space are the two objectives of the preservation program, Montanti said. That, in some cases, pits the township in a race against time and the development market, Montanti said.

One of the February properties is a 40-acre piece of land that sits along the Matchaponix Brook between the Reserve and Legends developments. The parcel is zoned R-60, which allows for a residential home on every 1.5 acres, and is being eyed for development as well.

Much of the list of properties is made up of land the township simply wants to preserve, Montanti said. But in the case of this 40-acre piece, officials not only want it preserved, they also hope to protect the adjacent portion of the Matchaponix Brook.

“Anytime you build along a stream, there’s always some detriment to that stream from the building that goes on,” Montanti said. “So [we will do] whatever we can do to help preserve that stream.”

Developers are aware of the township’s plans as well, and officials expect to have competition when trying to acquire the properties. Montanti said the township wants to continue to have amicable working relationships with local developers, but open space preservation is the township’s first priority.

The competition means that, where necessary, the township may have to consider condemnation proceedings.

Montanti stressed that the township intends to protect its longtime residents and farmers, not developers or land speculators. He referenced a farm on Gravel Hill Road, whose owner wants to pass the land down to his grandchildren. Such a case, Montanti said, would not induce the township to pursue condemnation.

“When there is development pressure on a piece of property, though, we will consider condemnation, because there’s a difference between a local family that may have owned the property for 100 years or longer, and a land speculator who has just purchased it and is now trying to sell to a builder,” Montanti said. “So, we have to judge each case individually.”

Montanti expects condemnation to be used with one of the February properties, the Rose Garden property, which is currently under strong consideration for a 67-home development. He said the inclusion of the land on the township’s open space list gives officials certain rights to aggressively pursue that land. Township officials will, however, make market-value offers before using condemnation.

“Where we see development pressure, and if it’s on our list, if they’re not willing to sell, we will condemn it,” Montanti said, “because the ones who are not willing to sell are going to be the ones who want to develop it.”

County freeholders have also been expanding their use of the state’s Farmland Preservation Program. For inclusion in that program, farmers sell the developments rights on their land to the state, which will declare the property as preserved open space.

But a certain combination of local and state legislation has left some farmers on the outside of that program looking in.

The value of land is generally a function of how many residential units can be constructed on the property. But Montanti said that in August 2003, the township rezoned about 5,000 acres in the southern portion of the town. The new zoning in that area allows for the construction of one home on every 6 acres, whereas the prior zoning allowed for a home on every 3 acres. That, in effect, reduced the appraised value of the land by about half, Montanti said.

To help local farmers, the state passed legislation that enabled the “down-zoned” land to be assessed by its zoning as of Jan. 1, 1999. The funding for that program, however, was used up in June 2003.

The state recently appropriated money to allow land to be assessed by its zoning as of Jan. 1, 2004. Unfortunately, since the township’s rezoning took place in August 2003, local farmers missed the cut by a few months.

To help those farmers, Montanti has written state Sen. Bob Smith requesting that the date be pushed back to July 1, 2003. He is awaiting a response.

“It would involve legislation, which is never an easy thing or a quick thing to get accomplished,” Montanti said. “And it really is the right thing to do and the fair thing to do for these people who were down-zoned.”

But, Montanti said, there is one other option. That would entail the township purchasing a municipal easement on those farms, and then applying to the county and state for reimbursement. The township would purchase the easement for more money than would be available to the land owner for inclusion in the farmland preservation program.

It would cost the township more, Montanti said, but hopefully the county, which he said is sympathetic to the situation the down-zoning has put the farmers in, can help the township purchase those easements, and the state, which enacted the legislation, can reimburse both.

“That way it’s more equitable for the farmers. I think it would preserve a lot more farmland,” Montanti said. “And it will cost the township more money, but I’m hoping that maybe the county would be willing to share some of that burden with us.”