U.F. nixes plan for village center on nursery's land
Princeton Nurseries says election could alter master plan's direction
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

Princeton Nurseries, the largest landowner in Upper Freehold, will cease operations and close its facility by 2010. Some of the company's land earlier slated for use as a village center may no longer go toward such a development project.

UPPER FREEHOLD - Since the township's master plan revision process began in early 2005, Smart Growth concepts including village centers have been a major part of the discussion, but that all changed last week.

At the Oct. 11 Planning Board workshop about the residential component of the master plan, Township Planner Mark Remsa said he is "jettisoning some earlier ideas," since the state is making any kind of Smart Growth effort extraordinarily difficult to do.

The board had previously discussed zoning a part of Princeton Nurseries' property off Ellisdale Road for a potential village center but will no longer do so.

This summer, Princeton Nurseries, the largest landowner in the township, announced that it would close by 2010. The nursery has 1,820 acres in Upper Freehold, 250 acres of which are in the Farmland Preservation Program. The company's remaining acreage in the township is zoned for either agricultural or residential use.

Princeton Nurseries President Ivan Olinsky said that the company was once fairly committed to working with the township and the master plan draft that included part of the company's property as a potential village center. Olinsky said the company spent a tremendous amount of money doing investigative work for the village center and prepared to put a significant amount of its other Upper Freehold property into farmland preservation.

The village center would have covered between 200 and 300 acres, with the rest of the land the nursery owns in the area remaining open space, according to Olinsky.

Olinsky said the Oct. 11 decision to nix the Smart Growth concepts from township land use planning didn't surprise him at all.

"I don't think they were prepared to make, nor did they understand, what a sincere well-thought recommendation regarding transfer of development rights (TDR) or village centers was all about," he said. "I was disappointed that such an important topic regarding the future of Upper Freehold Township was presented with mistakes and visual aids that were unreadable by most in attendance."

Olinsky said he felt that most people in attendance at the Oct. 11 meeting did not have a full understanding of Remsa's presentation and were confused as to the 180-degree change regarding Smart Growth.

Despite the meeting, Princeton Nurseries will move forward with the plan it set forth many months ago, according to Olinsky. He said the company will study all of its options and go in the direction that is the most economically beneficial to the ownership.

"The Planning Board has had three years to revise the master plan," he said, "and it was obvious to me and most others that they are trying to push through anything just to say it was completed by year end."

Olinsky said Planning Board members are all good, hardworking volunteers who have to solve a very complex issue - "a very frustrating, important issue to taxpayers who have been funding this nonprofessional process for a long time," according to Olinsky.

He added that the outcome of the November election could change the course of the master plan revisions again, given that ordinances to implement them will still have to be written.