Resolution of land issue a victory in Freehold Township

The News Transcript reports (March 22 and March 29, respectively) that Freehold Township Mayor David Segal and other municipal officials want to rezone some areas now zoned one house per acre to 2 acres, and one house per 5 acres to 10 acres, in the southern part of the township, and to allow a developer in the northern part of the township to build 165 houses on 320 acres (2-acre zoning) while at the same time requiring the developer to deed 130 acres (40 percent of the total tract) to public open space.

In 1981 the Township Com-mittee proposed to allow the same developer to build more than 1,100 housing units along with commercial and professional uses on the same tract of land (at 3.5 housing units per acre, when it had been previously zoned one house per acre).

Residents organized in opposition to this proposal and we succeeded in persuading the committee to reconsider and reverse its position. The final outcome of the dispute with this developer some 20 years later is a drop to 15-percent housing density compared to what was originally proposed, no commercial development, and open space preservation of 40 percent of the developer’s tract.

According to the News Tran-script article, the undeveloped portion, valued by one township official at $3.25 million, will also remain, at least for the next two years, in productive farm use.

While a neighboring town’s mayor is calling for development (see News Transcript, April 5, "Wheels in Motion on Zone Change"; and Feb. 16, "Farm May Give Way to Commercial Site"), it is refreshing to see that at least Freehold Township’s officials have kept the faith with local residents and have been willing to deal firmly with a developer to obtain substantial open space preservation at no additional cost to taxpayers, while at the same time significantly limiting the size of development. And we are all the better for it.

It also cannot be emphasized too strongly that the day is long past when the ramifications of development can be contained within one town’s borders. Development, commercial or otherwise, has a spiraling effect that needs more and more to be viewed and dealt with from a regional perspective.

A narrow parochial interest (defined in one dictionary as "having the restricted outlook often characteristic of geographic isolation") does not serve the larger community interests in the long run.

Barry Fulmer

Freehold Township