State funds to keep
farm green forever

New Jersey residents have voted several times over the years to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to preserving the state’s dwindling inventory of farmland.

Open space and farmland preservation funding has been approved on the local, county and state levels. Residents pay special assessments over and above their regular property taxes to help the government preserve land from development.

The News Transcript has generally supported these special assessments and area residents have, in most cases, approved the initial start-up of open space funds as well as periodic increases to keep the programs going.

Results are seen when government representatives successfully negotiate with a property owner for the purchase of development rights or the outright purchase of the land which takes it out of the development stream forever.

Citizens benefit when less residential development occurs in a community and fewer students wind up in local schools.

Most residents of western Monmouth County seem to agree that controlling residential development should be the top priority for local officials.

Farmland preservation programs have their critics who argue that zoning — and not the purchase of private land by government — should be the way to control development.

We are not convinced that course of action would be the most pragmatic way to proceed.

To that end, Gov. James E. McGreevey came to Manalapan on Jan. 7 to formally honor the 1,000th farm to be accepted into the state’s farmland preservation program.

Nestled on scenic Iron Ore Road, Boxwood Farm is a 145-acre property where Standard-bred horses are bred. The state’s purchase of the development rights for $3.09 million means Taylor Palmer Jr. and his family will retain ownership of the property but have agreed that the land is to be restricted to agricultural uses only.

The bottom line here is that Boxwood Farm will always be green and no houses will ever rise in a development called Boxwood Estates, Boxwood Pointe, Boxwood Manor, Boxwood at Manalapan or Boxwood Farm (without the farm).

It’s a small victory — but a victory nonetheless — in a state that continues to try to balance the preservation of open space with the rights of people to sell their property for development.