Freehold Township wants voters to OK tax hike to purchase more open space
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - Township officials plan to spend $14.2 million to purchase a 150-acre parcel of open space land to keep it from future development and will ask voters to approve a tax hike to help pay for future open space purchases.
The farmland at 429 Ely Harmony Road is adjacent to both the Metedeconk and Manasquan rivers and has been leased to farmers by the current owners, who have agreed to sell it to the township, according to Township Administrator Peter Valesi.
“It is an important parcel for open space as environmentally sensitive property,” Valesi said. “It is bordered on both sides by the southside of the Metedeconk River.”
The Township Committee on Tuesday approved the $14.2 million purchase and the issuance of $13.75 million in bonds to help pay for it.
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The governing body then approved an ordinance to place a public question on the November ballot asking voters to increase the tax rate used for the township’s Open Space Trust Fund from 3 cents per $100 of assessed value to 4 cents.
Such an increase would boost the annual portion of taxes for the Open Space Trust Fund on an average home assessed at $480,000 from $144 per year to $180 per year.
“The township has been very aggressive. We have over 9,000 acres of protected open space and the township committee is going to continue to preserve our environmentally sensitive areas,” Valesi said. “If we buy it with open space trust fund money, it remains open space forever.”
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Environmental advocates supported the move, noting that the Metedeconk River is a key water link into Barneget Bay, the state’s largest body of water.
“It is critical to protect the headwaters for the waterways that lead to Barnegat Bay,” said Britta Forsberg, executive director of Save Barnegat Bay, a nonprofit organization. “Some 200,000 people get their drinking water from the Metedeconk River. It has benefits to the natural ecology of the river and Barnegat Bay.”
She said keeping adjacent land as open space prevents pollution to the waterways.
“The natural land provides a filter down to the ground water and becomes part of the water cycle and the water system. When we interrupt that with development and add in roofs and driveways and roadways, we create stormwater runoff and that collects pollution into the waterways.”
Joanne Pannone, chair of the New Jersey Sierra Club central group, agreed. “The Metedeconk is definitely a fishing river,” she said. “We need open spaces to enhance our natural systems and restore and rebuild forests.”
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Freehold Township Mayor Maureen Fasano said the need for such open space farmland to be protected is important to the community.
“It is one of our largest remaining pieces of property out there and it goes right on the watershed,” Fasano said. “We didn’t think it was going to be within our reach and when the opportunity came around we wanted to keep it.
Currently, the land, owned by the Baldachino Family, is leased to farmers, a practice the township plans to continue.
“This has been a target for acquisition for a very long time. It is big and it is an important piece,” said Valesi. “This is probably the largest continuous single-owned parcel in Freehold Township.”
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Freehold Township NJ wants tax hike to purchase more open space
