The
State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC)
will open sealed bids from up to 200 landowners
-- determining which farms will be eligible for
state farmland preservation funding -- on Monday,
May 8th, at 1:30 p.m. at the N.J. Housing
and Mortgage Finance Agency building in Trenton,
Agriculture Secretary Art Brown, Jr., announced
today. Brown is chair of the SADC. The bid opening
-- which will reveal landowners' asking prices
for the sale of their development rights -- is
the final step in determining which farms will
be eligible for preservation under the first round
of the SADC's county easement purchase program
this year. "The 200 farms in this round -- totaling
nearly 18,000 acres -- represent the single largest
round of applications ever considered by the SADC," said
Brown. "Thanks to increased funding from the Garden
State Preservation Trust, we have a tremendous
opportunity to bolster New Jersey's legacy of preserved
farmland." "Farmland preservation is vitally important
to sustaining both our agricultural industry and
an overall high quality of life for every resident
of the state," said Governor Whitman. "I join all
New Jerseyans who are looking forward to the assurance
that farmland in their communities will continue
to be green and productive." Under its county easement
purchase program, the SADC provides counties with
grants to fund 60-80 percent of the purchase of
development rights on farms. To determine which
of the 200 farms will receive highest priority
for preservation funding, the SADC calculated a
quality score for each farm based on how well it
met specific criteria for agricultural productivity
and likelihood of development. Scores were used
to compile a preliminary ranking of all of the
applicant farms for this funding round. As part
of a separate process, the SADC certified development
values for each farm based on the recommendations
of two independent appraisers and a third SADC
review appraiser. The certified value is the fair-market
value for the development rights and the maximum
price on which the State is willing to cost-share.
By noon on Monday, each landowner is required to
submit a sealed bid stating his or her final asking
price. Under a discounting process, landowners
who offer to sell below certified value can move
their farms higher on the ranking list. For every
one percent a landowner discounts, two points will
be added to the farm's quality score. As a result,
the highest-ranked farms on the final list will
be those that have the greatest agricultural potential
and are the best value for taxpayer dollars. Over
the past 10 years, the discounting process has
resulted in savings of more than $25 million. The
farms that are ranked highest following the discounting
process are those that will receive the highest
priority for preservation based on the $43.5 million
in available funding. Monday's bid opening will
result in the final rankings and the determination
of which farms will be preserved. All projects
are subject to county, SADC, Garden State Preservation
Trust and legislative approvals.
The
bid opening, which is open to the public, will
take place in the board room of the N.J. Housing
and Mortgage Finance Agency building at 637 South
Clinton Ave., Trenton. |