BEACON EDITORIAL
By:Hillsborough Beacon
Especially these days, when it often seems like the state is being paved over faster than we can say, "Boy, the view here is inspiring," few things are nicer than hearing that a tract of real estate has been saved from development.
So we join with the neighbors of a 537-acre tract owned by Merck & Co., mostly in Hunterdon County but also partly in western Hillsborough, in celebrating the impending sale of that land to the state through its Green Acres program.
State officials predictably have not said anything one way or the other about the sale – state bureaucrats typically wait until everyone knows all the details before they announce major events and decisions – but reports so far about the sale have been nothing but good.
Somerset County officials have indicated the Hillsborough tract will be added to a strip of already-preserved land along the South Branch River. This land will be preserved as open space, not for soccer fields or other forms of active recreation, but for people who enjoy a relaxing walk or bike ride in the woods. Now that’s open space.
The land added to the total amount preserved in Hillsborough admittedly isn’t that much, only about 20 to 30 acres, depending on whom you ask, and we hope that other property owners in the area follow Merck’s lead rather bringing the development blight to Neshanic.
But the total land saved is pretty sizable, and that means a lot of houses – with the attendant traffic and school needs – won’t be built in a remarkably rural and pristine area.
And that’s good news for everyone.