 (TRENTON)
- The Farmland Preservation Program this week celebrated
its 20th anniversary, a milestone for the program that
has grown to become the nation's leader in preserving
land for permanent agriculture. The State Agriculture
Development Committee (SADC), which administers the
farmland preservation effort, held its inaugural public
meeting July 1983.
The SADC preserved its first land in May 1985,
acquiring the development rights in cooperation with
Burlington County on five neighboring farms totaling
608 acres in Chesterfield. Today, 918 farms totaling
more than 110,000 acres have been preserved in New
Jersey, which amounts to more than 13 percent of
the state's agricultural land base - the highest
percentage of protected land base of any state in
the nation.
"New Jersey residents can be proud of the
program's success, which is evident in the beautiful
open landscapes we enjoy and in the access we have
to fresh, locally grown agricultural products," said
Agriculture Secretary Charles M. Kuperus, who chairs
the SADC. "I commend the SADC staff, my fellow
board members and their colleagues at the county
level for the thoughtful and careful planning that
goes into this program. I look forward to continuing
our work together to forever preserve our land and
keep New Jersey green and growing."
SADC Executive Director Greg Romano and Assistant
Director Rob Baumley are original members of the
1983 SADC staff. Romano served as departmental counsel
for its inaugural meeting and he was named as Executive
Director in 1996.
"On this occasion we owe a debt of gratitude
to the hundreds of farmers who put their land into
our program and who opted not to develop their property
or to sell it for development," Romano said. "It
is a big decision for them to put their farm into
the program, and they deserve credit for that."
Romano said the office has maintained its emphasis
on strategic preservation projects, from that first
group of Chesterfield farms to its present-day Smart
Growth initiatives in all regions of the state.
Former Gov. Thomas Kean signed the legislation
creating the program in the beginning of 1983. In
1998, voters approved a crucial Open Space bond referendum
giving the Farmland Preservation Program a dedicated
funding source from the Sales and Use Tax. And at
the beginning of 2003, Gov. James E. McGreevey gave
the SADC a new goal to preserve an unprecedented
20,000 acres of farmland a year.
Preserved farms and "project areas" can
be found across the state, from groups of dairy farms
in Wantage Township, Sussex County, to major preservation
areas in Upper Freehold, East Windsor and other parts
of Central Jersey facing tremendous development pressure,
to the important agricultural production centers
in Cumberland and Salem counties, all the way south
to the critical farms that have been saved around
Cape May.
One of the original Committee members attending
the July 28, 1983, inaugural meeting is retired Burlington
County farmer William Pettit Sr. "We went through
some - trying times when we first started but we
kept moving," said Pettit, a county leader in
farmland preservation. "I am very happy that
the program has been as successful as it has been." Another
original Committee member is professional planner
Sam Hamill, co-founder of the Smart Growth advocacy
group New Jersey Future. Hamill said, "The SADC
still leads the way in the commitment to planning
and conservation of agricultural lands."
In addition to the Farmland Preservation Program, the
SADC monitors activities on preserved farms to ensure
the taxpayers' investment in agricultural resources
is protected. The agency also resolves disputes raised
under New Jersey's Right To Farm Law, one of the nation's
toughest, which is intended to protect the rights of
all responsible farm operations. |
