Company closing to put community at a crossroads
Future use of over 1,500 U.F. acres hangs in the balance
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

Princeton Nurseries, which has operated since 1913 and owns more than 1,800 acres in Upper Freehold, has declared that it will phase out and cease its business operations by 2010.

UPPER FREEHOLD - Princeton Nurseries President Ivan Olinsky had strong words for elected and appointed officials after an announcement last week that the company would close by spring 2010.

Princeton Nurseries is the largest landowner in Upper Freehold, with over 1,800 acres. The company also owns several hundred more acres in neighboring municipalities.

Earlier this year, the company sent invitations to every resident in the township and placed ads in local newspapers for a series of public meetings it held. The sessions were devoted to establishing a dialogue with residents and listening to their concerns and recommendations regarding the township's ongoing land-use planning process and the potential for the company's land.

Upper Freehold has been trying to revise its master plan, which regulates land use in the community, for about 2 1/2 years but has made little progress with the effort. A recent master plan draft of revisions included designating some of Princeton Nurseries' acreage as a village center for large-scale commercial and residential development. However, the draft has not yet been given a public hearing and the mayor has recently implied that it may not move forward.

A Princeton Nurseries truck gets ready to haul a shipment of trees to a customer.

According to Olinsky, between 10 and 12 people attended each of the company's 14 planning sessions. He called the feedback from those who attended "very positive."

"The public understood," he said. "We wanted to explain with factual data to the Planning Board."

Olinsky said that the lack of response from the Planning Board and Township Committee regarding the sessions was not the major reason Princeton Nurseries decided to terminate its operations in town.

"However, there was great concern from the [company's] ownership and myself that since we were basically ignored during our 14-meeting process, with no one attending from the Planning Board or Township Committee except Deputy Mayor William Miscoski, after being invited repeatedly, that there was little or no interest in moving forward with the proposed master plan draft," he said.

Olinsky continued, "The lack of response was a clear signal that going forward on our part would be a waste of time and huge dollars."

Even after Princeton Nurseries concluded the process of meeting with the public, Olinsky said, no one from the governing body or Planning Board contacted the company regarding its future plans.

He said the company had previously scheduled a meeting for Princeton Nurseries to present its data to the Planning Board.

"However, we felt that since there was no input during our community seminars from the Planning Board or Township Committee, any further effort would be a waste of time," he said.

When asked why he did not attend any of the public meetings, Planning Board Chairman Richard Stern said, "I did not attend any Princeton Nurseries meetings due to possible conflict of interest, but I was looking forward to their coming before the Planning Board, as is the same with all applications. I was extremely disappointed when they canceled."

Olinsky said he had met with Mayor Stephen Fleischacker several times early in the process, and was told that the township's proposed master plan draft would "hopefully be approved by April."

"However, there were numerous clear signals after we spent a lot of money that the Planning Board and Township Committee were not going forward with the process," Olinsky said. "This was a huge disappointment from our standpoint, as we felt that it could provide answers all the way around, but none of our township officials other than Bill [Miscoski] showed up at our information seminars."

According to Olinsky, not seeing the proposed master plan move forward was a critical point discussed regarding Princeton Nurseries' future presence in Upper Freehold. He said the company has been and is presently observing the future direction, or lack thereof, of the current township officials as they are making decisions that will affect the equity in the company's land.

"In the past, and it appears in the future, farmers' equity will continue to erode with little involvement in the decision-making process," Olinsky said. "If you want to preserve and maintain open space and keep farming in Upper Freehold, something better be decided soon."

Olinsky said that after years of working on the master plan revisions and a huge expenditure of taxpayer dollars, the township appears to be "basically back to ground zero."

Fleischacker said he did not attend any of Princeton Nurseries' meetings or work with the company once it presented its plan because "in my opinion, that could have compromised my future participation as a Planning Board member if and when Princeton Nurseries decided to submit an application involving their plan."

When asked if he ever specifically told Olinsky he could not attend due to the potential conflict of interest, Fleischacker said no.

"Until last week, I was not aware that my absence was a concern to Princeton Nurseries," he said. "Had I been asked, I certainly would have explained my opinion."

Fleischacker said he had been looking forward to Princeton Nurseries' scheduled March 13 presentation before the Planning Board.

"Princeton Nurseries' findings from their information sessions with community members, their ideas as to how their plan could integrate with the emerging revised land-use element of the master plan certainly merited the scheduling of an entire meeting devoted to Upper Freehold Township's largest landowner," he said.

Fleischacker said he and most Planning Board members learned of the postponement shortly before the March 13 meeting.

"It was explained to us that the postponement was necessary because of internal business reasons," he said. "We certainly respected the privacy of the family business and did not inquire as to the nature of the difficulties."

He added, "Until Princeton Nurseries' announcement, we had no reason to believe the meeting would not be rescheduled."

Fleischacker said it is unfortunate that the municipality's respect for privacy and allowing Princeton Nurseries to conclude its private business issues without government interference was misunderstood to mean lack of continued interest.

"However, now that a business decision has been made to discontinue current operations under current ownership in a structured manner over a three-year period, our community has an opportunity to work with Princeton Nurseries to avoid the loss of more than 1,500 acres of farmland and sensitive environmental habitat to residential housing," he said.

For the past two years, Fleischacker said, the Planning Board has discussed the pros and cons of density transfer and village planning areas for the sake of preserving large contiguous tracts of farmland in order to maintain agricultural viability.

"Until now, these discussions have been about some unknown future time at some yet-to-be-determined location in the township," he said. "All of that changed now with Princeton Nurseries' recent business decision. What was previously viewed as the Planning Board contemplating long-term, future 'what if' scenarios - i.e., what if one or more of the largest farm/landowners in our township decided to terminate their business - is now less than three years away from happening, and it is now identified in a specific location in our township."

Fleischacker alleged that how residents react to Princeton Nurseries' news will determine the future of agriculture in the township.

"We can work with Princeton Nurseries and make planning decisions to promote the long-term future of agriculture in our community - i.e., agricultural retention can be accomplished through state, county and local preservation initiatives in combination with density transfer - or we can become angered by Princeton Nurseries' decision and see more than 1,500 acres of farmland and sensitive environmental areas disappear and become luxury housing developments, as has occurred in numerous New Jersey towns," he said.

Fleischacker said Upper Freehold is no longer a community in transition.

"We are now a community at a crossroads," he said.