Commitment to remaining rural in U.F.

Editor's note: Below is the Upper Freehold country code, adopted in 1998:

This document expresses the philosophy of Upper Freehold Township residents. The residents of this township either have been raised here and chosen to stay or moved here because they enjoy the "rural life." This community has shown a strong commitment to remaining rural by committing a portion of their tax dollars to farmland preservation, forgoing services taken for granted in suburban and city areas, and traveling the extra distance for the necessities.

Many residents have moved to this area because the "rural atmosphere" of their former hometown has been lost to development. Others may be rural newcomers escaping the suburbs and cities. These residents must remember not to expect perfectly paved roads, water and sewer service, a local police department, municipal trash pickup, and other "luxuries." Residents in a rural community will endure the slow-moving farm machinery on the road, early-morning tractor noise, and perhaps unpleasant odors of natural fertilizers, for the sake of maintaining the country life.

If you are considering this area as your home, please remember that the snowplow may not come as often as you may feel necessary, and the supermarket will always be at least a half-hour ride away. The New Jersey State Police have been providing us with excellent coverage and all necessary special services, and we hope to continue that relationship as long as possible. As a member of this community, you will have to contract for trash removal with a private vendor, and on two occasions during the year you will be permitted to bring your larger, bulk waste to the municipal garage during a township cleanup week. In exchange for your participation in providing these services to your family, we will ensure a tax rate without the high costs associated with maintaining equipment and employing personnel to deliver these services.

You will sometimes have to pay a price to remain a rural community - residential development and farmland-assessed properties do not provide the ratables of commercial development. Farmland-assessed property provides a community with open space, and owners enjoy a reduced property assessment; however, the entire municipality benefits from this acreage that will have no impact on the local school district or other services. Property owners who sell development rights pursuant to the Farmland Preservation Act ensure that farming will continue in New Jersey. The residential development must be controlled in consideration of the services it demands. New homes lead to new roads, and to new or expanded schools, and as we all know, the present funding of education through property taxes is a strain on the residents of New Jersey. The increased traffic through Upper Freehold Township that has been a result of development in surrounding communities has put pressure on local residents by compelling us to improve roads for the sake of the safety of all.

It is with this ideology that the Committee of Upper Freehold Township does hereby adopt this code as a notice to all present residents and future residents of this community that Upper Freehold Township officials will continue the philosophy in their policy and procedure to provide its constituents with a country lifestyle.