Taxes may increase cost of new middle school site
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Taxpayers may have to pony up as much as $260,000 in rollback taxes for the 118-acre new middle school property on Breza Road.

The land is farmland assessed and is still being farmed by Richard Stern, who is also chairman of the township's Planning Board. Upper Freehold Regional School District Superintendent of Schools Richard Fitzpatrick gave the Township Committee at its Oct. 4 meeting an undated memo from the district's land acquisition attorney, David Lonski, explaining the issue.

According to Lonski, property assessed as farmland in New Jersey has significantly reduced property taxes.

"The New Jersey property tax laws provide that when property that was assessed as farmland is developed, the developer must pay the difference between the amount of taxes actually paid by the property owner and the amount that should have been paid if the property was not farmland assessed," Lonski said in the memo.

The difference between the amount of taxes must be paid for the year of the change of use and for the two preceding tax years, according to Lonski.

"It is assessed against the new owner at the time of the change of use, which triggers the assessment," he said in the memo.

In the memo, Lonski also noted that there is a partial exception for a governmental unit that acquires property for recreation and conservation purposes. Lonski said he anticipates being asked whether all or some of the middle school property would be available to the general public, or whether the public would have access to public areas and ball fields at the site.

"There are several court decisions that hold the construction of a public school on previously assessed farmland property as subject to rollback taxes," Lonski wrote in the memo.

Lonski stated that he spoke to the township's tax assessor, Stephen Walters, who has requested to review and evaluate a site plan of the property. He further stated that in a worst-case scenario, if the entire tract is subject to rollback taxes and $5.1 million is used as the purchase price for the entire three-year rollback period, a payment of approximately $260,000 would be due in November of the year of the change of use.

"Since property taxes usually increase, that amount will increase from tax year to tax year," Lonski said in the memo.

Fitzpatrick said that Stern currently grows soybeans on the land, which Neil Van Cleef owns. He said the school district would not own the land until it receives all necessary permits.

Stern has asked the district if he could continue farming the land that is not being built on, Fitzpatrick said. Once open, he said, the new school could look at having a National FFA Organization (or FFA for short, formerly Future Farmers of America) program on the site.