Suggestions include deletion of proposed receiving area.
By:Eve Collins
MANSFIELD The township’s planner addressed the Township Committee and Planning Board on Tuesday about the recommendations county officials had for improving Mansfield’s proposed Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, including deleting a proposed receiving area for development.
Township Planner Harry McVey had met with Burlington County Director of Economic Development and Regional Planning Mark Remsa and Burlington County Land Use Coordinator Susan Craft to discuss the township’s transfer of development rights ordinance. Mr. McVey reported back to the Planning Board and Township Committee in a joint meeting on Tuesday.
The ordinance would be easy to implement based on the changes talked about at Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. McVey said.
This is the second time the county has reviewed the ordinance. The township sent it to the county late last summer for its first review, Mr. McVey said. Upon reviewing the ordinance, the county has suggested several changes.
Transfer of developments rights programs are designed to encourage a shift in growth away from agricultural, environmentally sensitive or open space regions of municipality to more appropriate areas, according to the New Jersey state Web site.
Landowners can sell their development credits. The purchasers of the credits then can use them to build elsewhere in a designated growth area at a higher density than is normally allowed in a town’s zoning ordinance, according to the Web site.
Only two other townships, Chesterfield and Lumberton, have adopted TDR ordinances. Mansfield introduced its ordinance last year.
The county suggested the proposed Georgetown receiving area be deleted due to "environmentally impacted land," including wetlands.
The county stated the area near I-295 and the landfill should be developed first, said Mr. McVey. The benefit to the township, he said, is that the credits would be nonresidential, making way for commercial ratables.
In the Columbus area, the county suggested the township remove a handful of properties along Petticoat Bridge Road from the receiving area. Some have been preserved by the state, including the farm belonging to Arthur Puglia Jr., Mayor Puglia’s son. The family preserved the farm last year, Mayor Puglia said.
County officials said the Hedding area, including properties proposed for preservation, be taken the way it is, Mr. McVey said. They had no suggestions for changes in that area.
The Hedding area includes two farms owned by the Wainwright family, who wants the parcels preserved. The county has twice rejected preserving the farmland, the first time in May of 2000 and the second time in August of that year, even after the Township Committee sent a letter to the County Agricultural Development Board, supporting the preservation.
The family then tried its luck with the state, applying to the State Agricultural Development Committee (SADC) in March 2001, also with support from the Township Committee.
The Wainwright family has owned the two parcels of farmland for 150 years.
"My sister has some deeds that date back to 1854," said Curtis Wainwright, the owner of one of the two parcels. Mr. Wainwright said he thinks he is the sixth or seventh generation to own the farm.
The Wainwright application to the SADC has set aside 233 of the tract’s total 251 acres for preservation. The application leaves out 18 acres for farmland preservation, which the township could use for their TDR program, Mr. Wainwright said.
The land is broken up into two parcels. Mr. Wainwright farms 116 acres located on Old York Road. And Cora Wainwright, his mother, owns and operates the remaining 134 acres.
"Nobody in the family wants to see the farm built up," Mr. Wainwright said. "We have had offers (to sell) in the past, but we would just as soon keep farming."
The Wainwrights applied to the SADC under the direct easement purchase program, said SADC spokesperson Hope Gruzlovic. Under a direct easement purchase, landowners sell the development rights on the farmland directly to the SADC.
When the owners sell the development rights, they retain ownership of their land, but agree to permanent deed restrictions that allow only agricultural use.
Factors considered by the SADC in evaluating farms include percentage of high-quality soils; percentage of tillable acres; suitable boundaries and buffers, such as other adjacent preserved farms and open space; the local commitment to agriculture; size of the farm; agricultural density of the area and imminence of development.
The SADC negotiates the purchase price with the landowner subject to the recommendations of two independent appraisers. The state still is negotiating value of development rights with the family and still is interested in preserving the land, said Ms. Gruzlovic. The two Wainwright farms are ranked numbers 11 and 12 out of 84 farms the state would like to preserve, she said.
The Wainwright farm was designated as a receiving area in Mansfield’s Master Plan, said county freeholders spokesman Ralph Shrom. Although the Wainwrights seem to have received support from the Township Committee, he said, the county has received "mixed messages" from officials because the farms still are designated as receiving areas in the township’s proposed TDR ordinance.
Committeeman Ray Stupienski said at Tuesday’s meeting that any farmer who wants to preserve his land has the support of the Township Committee.
Mr. McVey said the Wainwright property is in the receiving area pending preservation. If the land is preserved, he said, it would not impact the TDR program.
The family did not know about the township’s ordinance when they went to the Township Committee about preservation, Mr. Wainwright said.
The county refused the request for preservation "for municipal planning concerns," he said.
"We still don’t plan to sell," said Mr. Wainwright. "It won’t be the end of the world, but (preservation) would be easier," he said.

