Mayor looks beyond township's boundaries
External TDR program could preserve township land and its equity
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Mayor Stephen Fleischacker has proposed transferring the township's development potential outside of its borders.

The Planning Board is currently entering into its third year of trying to revise the township's master plan. The revision process entails identifying sections of town as sending areas for farmland preservation and receiving areas for high-density development.

At the Planning Board's Feb. 20 meeting, Fleischacker said that landowners want to make sure they do not lose the equity in their land.

"It's all about return on investment," he said.

While landowners want the highest return on their investments, Fleischacker said the majority of the other homeowners in the town want low-density housing and have concerns about taxes.

According to Fleischacker, the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP) aims to encourage communities like Upper Freehold to preserve land while encouraging older cities and suburban areas to continue to develop. He asked Township Planner Mark Remsa if the township's master plan could include an incentive for landowners to achieve a higher return on their investments by connecting to development projects in older cities and suburbs.

"Is there anything we can do at the local level, recognizing that the back end must be done at the state level?" Fleischacker asked Remsa.

Finding the proper host community could make the cross-township boundary idea work, according to Fleischacker.

"It's hard, but it would make the landowners happy," he said. "It would make the new residents happy. Everybody would get what they want."

According to Remsa, the concept is permissible under the state's new transfer of development rights (TDR) statute. However, he said intermunicipal TDR transfers have not yet happened.

Remsa said the township could include the concept in its master plan for further exploration, but that use of such a concept would hinge on finding receiving communities.

"You can make recommendations, but there is a tremendous amount of work involved due to the way the statute is written," he said.

Fleischacker estimated that implementing such a concept would take two to five years. He said that if the scenario proves successful, the township would have fewer dwellings than the number that would be allotted under a downzoning plan.

"The idea may have legs," Fleischacker said.

Such an external transfer of the township's development could offer tax advantages and ultimately yield a return on investment for developers and landowners, according to Fleischacker.

Township Attorney Frank Armenante warned that there are no teeth yet in the SDRP statute. Remsa said the statute is brand-new and that it would take several years for it to be studied.

"I think our community has a lot to gain," Fleischacker said. "How do we allay fears that this is not a ruse?"

Remsa replied that the statute is a "cookbook" approach and that Upper Freehold is a rural agricultural community that does not want to see its land base disappear.

"Large-lot downzoning will not preserve," he said. "It will just create large-lot sprawl."

Remsa said the Planning Board must act like King Solomon among those who want fewer housing units, those who want to preserve and those who are concerned with the equity in their land.

"Planning should never be static," he said. "You should always look at new options. But you must look at what is available today and what you have control over today."

Fleischacker said there was a misconception in the community that a public hearing on the master plan revisions would take place on Feb. 27.

"We're nowhere near that point," he said. "We're nowhere near a real draft [of the master plan]."

The board was scheduled to take public comment on the issue on Feb. 27, but additional meetings will be held to refine the draft before the township actually issues it as a formal draft, according to Fleischacker.

"Once the Planning Board decides it is acceptable as a draft, we will schedule public hearings," he said. "There's a misconception in the community that it is just about done. It's not."