A
record 145 farms in 15 counties will be preserved
with state farmland preservation funding after
successfully qualifying today in the single largest
application round in the history of New Jersey's
Farmland Preservation Program. "These farms total
12,644 acres -- the highest single-round total
in the 17-year history of the program," said Agriculture
Secretary Art Brown, Jr. Brown serves as chair
of the State Agriculture Development Committee
(SADC), which administers the Farmland Preservation
Program. "This is great news for New Jersey's agricultural
industry, which is dependent on a stable land base
for its survival." "Farmland preservation benefits
all New Jerseyans," said Governor Whitman. "Today,
we've taken another step closer to meeting our
goal of preserving a million acres of farmland
and open space, and protecting the quality of life
here in the Garden State for generations to come." A
total of 200 farms were eligible to compete for
state farmland preservation funding in this round
of the SADC's county grants program. Under this
program, the SADC provides counties with cost-sharing
grants to fund 60-80 percent of the purchase of
development rights on farms. The counties, and
in some cases municipalities, fund the remaining
costs. By noon today, landowners were required
to submit sealed bids containing asking prices
for their development rights. Those bids determined
the final ranking list for state preservation funding.
Farms went into today's bid opening with a preliminary
ranking based on quality scores. The SADC calculated
those scores based on how well each farm met specific
criteria that measure agricultural productivity
and likelihood of development. As part of a separate
process, the SADC also had certified development
values for each farm based on the recommendations
of two independent appraisers and a third SADC
review appraiser. A development value represents
the fair-market value and is the maximum price
on which the state is willing to cost share. That
value was shared with each landowner. In submitting
their asking prices, all landowners had the opportunity
to discount below their certified value. For every
one percent landowners discounted, two points were
added to their quality scores, so landowners who
discounted were able to move their farms higher
in the rankings and better ensure their chances
of preservation. There were no bids for 55 farms
-- 31 landowners did not bid, 2 were disqualified
for bidding above the highest appraised value and
22 applications were withdrawn. Of the remaining
145 landowners, 80 discounted for a total savings
of $1.5 million. Over the past 10 years, the discounting
process has resulted in savings of more than $25
million. A total of $43.5 million was available
for this round through the Garden State Preservation
Trust Fund. State preservation costs for the 145
farms will be approximately $36.1 million. The
remaining funds will be used to preserve additional
farms through other farmland preservation programs.
To
date, the Farmland Preservation Program has permanently
preserved 419 farms totaling 62,231 acres, with
an additional 109 farms and 14,804 acres approved
for preservation. These totals do not include
the farms that successfully qualified for funding
today, which are subject to county, SADC, Garden
State Preservation Trust and legislative approvals. |
