Farm will be preserved from future development
BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

MONROE - Township officials teamed with a landowner, along with the county and state, to ensure that one more Monroe farm will never be developed.

As part of the N.J. Department of Agriculture (NJDA) Farmland Preservation Program, Barbara Schauer, the owner of a 28.57-acre farm on Cranbury Station Road, will sell the development rights for the land to the state, county and township.

"We wanted it preserved so we would always have it for farmland," Schauer said.

The farm has been in the Schauer family since 1929, when Barbara Schauer's parents moved there. Among its harvests are flowers and vegetables, which are sold across the street at Pop's Farm Market, a business owned by the Schauer family.

"We have a total of approximately 1,200 acres that have been preserved," township environmental protection manager John Riggs said.

The Schauer tract will be the 12th farm preserved in Monroe, according to Riggs. Riggs said the closing on the deal will happen no later than June 30. The town will pay $377,752.24 of the total tab of about $1.78 million. The county will pay $356,166.36, and the state will cover the remaining $1,046,913.20. The township will pay its share of the cost in July, Riggs said.

The bond ordinance approving funds for the town's portion of the bill is on the agenda for second reading and public hearing June 25. According to township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton, the town was notified by the county May 29 that the closing proceedings on the development rights to the land would begin to move forward. Inclusion in the program comes with benefits from the state, county and municipality in return for the landowners' acceptance of restrictions on the property.

Along with the incentive of retaining ownership of the land along with the ability to sell it, the farm owners have access to grants to fund soil and water conservation projects. They are also given some protection from eminent domain, as well as from emergency restrictions on the use of water and other resources, according to the NJDA Web site.