Master plan revisions pick up steam in U.F.
New draft proposes equine communities, density transfers
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer
With election season and the possibility of a change in the mayoralty on the horizon, the Planning Board has started the push to get Upper Freehold's master plan revisions completed by the end of this year.

The board has been working on trying to revise the plan that regulates land use in town for almost three years. Almost exactly one year ago, Upper Freehold Township Planner Mark Remsa went before the board with an idea he described as "radical and shocking." He called for downzoning the township and creating economic incentives to encourage landowners with property in rural areas to transfer the potential development densities of their land to areas in the township more suitable for development.

One day short of a year later, on Oct. 12, Remsa presented a draft of the residential component of the master plan to the Planning Board. The draft reiterates what Remsa proposed last year, which includes changing the minimum lot size in the township's agricultural/ residential (AR) zone from 3 to 6 acres and the few areas in town with 5-acre zoning to 10 acres.

Remsa said the town should avoid large-lot sprawl and encourage the preservation of large blocks of land. Again he told the board that the township must create an economic incentive for landowners to preserve their properties. That incentive, he said, is the density transfer.

The draft of the revisions to the master plan would enable landowners to participate in noncontiguous lot density transfers. The tracts of land receiving the development would have to measure a minimum of 100 acres.

The minimum lot size a developer would be capable of building on in a receiving area would be 1 acre. Developers would have to prepare a schematic test qualifying plan in order to qualify for the 1-acre cluster provision that the township currently offers in its ordinances.

Under the provisions of Remsa's proposal, lots in the receiving areas would rely on public wells and septic systems. A minimum of 5 percent of the receiving areas would have to be set aside for open space or recreation.

The proposed master plan revisions would also give landowners with properties measuring less than 20 acres the ability to use lot averaging when developing their properties. Lot averaging permits flexibility in lot size without requiring the more complex review process typically associated with clustering. The intent is to permit the applicant to vary lot sizes and widths so as to average the minimum size of lot per unit as required in the township's regulations. The application would result in lots measuring between a minimum of 1 acre and a maximum of 10 acres, according to Remsa.

Under the proposed revisions, landowners with properties measuring more than 20 acres who would like to develop their land would need to have a tract that is at least 30 percent developable, with 70 percent preserved as open space or farmland. At least 50 percent of the preserved land would have to be usable for agriculture, according to Remsa.

The revisions would also give landowners with properties measuring at least 25 acres the option of creating a farmette. The small farm(s) on the tract would have to be located on a lot(s) measuring a minimum of 10 acres on at least 70 percent of the total tract, and then the developer could build a cluster of 1-acre lots on the remaining 30 percent of the tract.

The plan Remsa pitched also includes placing an equine community option in the AR zone. Such a community would require at least 100 acres, 20 percent of which could be residential lots measuring at least 1 acre with the remaining 80 percent of the tract for an equine center including barns, indoor and outdoor arenas, and paddocks. The equine center portion of the property would be deed-restricted for equine use.

Planning Board Chairman Richard Stern suggested changing the ratio for the equine community to 30 percent residential and 70 percent equine center.

Board member J. David Holmes said the deed restriction for the equine center should note general agricultural use, rather than strictly equine use.

"We wouldn't want empty properties if the equine industry taps out," he said.

Board member Bob Freiberger said that after the township completes its work on the master plan, it needs to work on enticing developers to build equine communities in the area.

"It would not be a poor man's community," he said. "People need substantial wealth to do that."

Freiberger called Upper Freehold - which has the Horse Park of New Jersey within its boundaries - the center of the horse community. He said "equine centers are popping up all over" in neighboring towns such as Chesterfield and North Hanover.

Remsa said White Birch Farm on Route 526 would be a suitable location for an equine community. With the use of the proposed density transfer, he said, the farm's development potential could be transferred to a receiving area located across the street from the facility.

"White Birch Farm is one of the premier equestrian facilities in town," he said.

Remsa told the board the land use element of the master plan is not a zoning ordinance and that the zoning ordinances will eventually be drafted to implement the master plan revisions and flesh out their details.

"The land use plan is a snapshot of where you want to go," he said. "Other elements of the master plan are required [to implement the changes]. The land use plan can't be everything. It's not a strategy plan."