Residents pitch their ideas for future land use in U.F.
Land preservation, planning for schools among concerns
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Two years after the township began its master plan revisions, the public has been invited to comment.

While the township currently has 3-acre zoning with a 35 percent bonus density for developers who use the cluster option, the proposed master plan revisions would reduce the base zoning to 6 and 10 acres. The proposed plan also includes creating receiving areas for higher-density housing and commercial development, which aims to preserve large areas of contiguous farmland and open space in other areas of town.

During the Planning Board's Feb. 27 meeting, resident Al Trenton said the new master plan should not include warehouses anywhere in the township, whether they are 18,000 square feet or 5,000 square feet.

"It's not part of our country code," he said.

The revised master plan proposes changes to the township's commercial area on Route 539. Trenton said he does not want to see Route 539 and other county roads become like Route 33. He also asked that more of an effort be made to preserve dilapidated historic buildings rather than having them torn down.

Bruce Feigenbaum, who lives near White Birch Farm on Route 526, said people in his area are happy to hear that the township is no longer considering the farm as a receiving area for high-density development. He recommended that the township go to 5-acre zoning and preserve half of its remaining undeveloped acres. By doing so, he said the township would only have 1,000 houses left to be built until build-out.

"It's a compromise on what has been discussed," he said. "There's less taxes for our already overburdened schools. That's my idea of Smart Growth."

Former Mayor Richard Osborn, who works in the preservation field, said he has direct experience with transfer of development rights (TDR) at the N.J. Pinelands Development Credit Bank in Trenton.

"It's a very difficult program to manage," he said.

In order to transfer development rights, according to Osborn, there have to be ways to monitor and record deed restrictions while facilitating rights to the properties involved in the transfer.

"If not all rights are transferred, there needs to be some method of record keeping for that end as well," he said. "Selling the rights is only part of the process."

He said that the state does not give towns money for TDR infrastructure. He gave examples of towns such as Egg Harbor and Hamilton Township in Atlantic County that are "reeling" with extra development but have no extra money for infrastructure.

In Osborn's view, only Breza Road, which has sewerage available, should be considered as a potential receiving area.

He also said that the proposed bonus density for those property owners intending to send housing units to receiving areas would not be acceptable for state agencies or the Garden State Preservation Trust Fund.

"They have special guidelines and rules they deal with," he said. "It will cost us a lot of money to go in that direction."

Osborn also noted that most of the township is considered a Planning Area 4 in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP), which does not allow public sewers.

"There's a reason we are in Planning Area 4," Osborn said. "It's not just the environmental constraints, but the type of farmland - some of the best farmland in the state of New Jersey."

Osborn said the township has 7,000 acres in the Farmland Preservation Program.

"Take the 10,000 acres left and preserve them all," he said. "It gives the benefit of not having to build more schools."

Osborn also spoke of an alternative program called the right of first refusal. Right of first refusal means that a landowner who decides to sell more than 20 acres of land to someone other than a family member would first have to offer to sell the property to the township, county or state, or to a nonprofit conservation organization before selling it to someone else. Osborn said such a program maintains the equity of the property and, over a period of time, spreads out the cost.

Ken Caitano, a candidate for a seat on the Upper Freehold Board of Education, said that the 1994-95 master plan did not mention educational facilities as goals or objectives. Since 1999, the township has issued its largest number of housing permits for four-bedroom houses, but the 2001 Land Use Plan Element of the master plan did not mention educational facilities, he said. He asked the board to include educational facilities in its 2007 goals and objectives.

Resident Doug Walsh, the developer of the Cox's Corner commercial subdivision, said that the commercial section of the land use ordinance has not been updated in 20 years. He said that when business people come into town, giving the recent example of a proposal to build a gym, they may be told that their business is not a permitted use. He asked that those interested in bringing business to the community work with the township's Economic Development Committee.

Debby Osborn called Upper Freehold "the Garden of Eden."

"We have something so precious here," she said. "We should fight like hell to keep it as rural as we have it. It's a precious commodity. When it's gone, it's gone."

Walter Helfrecht said creating higher density is an affront to the environmentally sensitive nature of the lands in the township. He asked the board not to put a set of conditions on a piece of land that the land itself cannot support.