Joe T oscano
Guest Column
Peace for a little while? That seems to be what some people are thinking, now that the elections are over. But we are only in a retreat from both sides of the debate, to get their house in order to come and fight again. This time, the facts will be completely different from the last time, but the same as before. Let me explain.
We all seem to be looking for someone to blame for the growth of our township, but we all forget that we all are the reason why. Both sides make for a good fight — the new people don’t want this town to look like the one they came from, and the farmer can’t make any money farming. Sounds like a no-win for both. In the midst of all this locking of horns, the school board throws a monkey wrench into the mix, and that adds more fuel to the fire (but that’s another letter later). The new people complain about how much building is going on here, but they forget that approximately 80 percent of the building was approved over 10 years ago, and those who approved it are not in power now. That is why they are here.
The farmer, he knows he has to sell his land for development because there is no money for farmland preservation for the amount of land we have to cover, so the only bank in town is the developer. The farmer has no sons or daughters who want the responsibility to fall on their shoulders of selling the farm or foreclosure because they can’t make it go, with all the complaints about noise, smell and traffic — needless to say, beans are getting about $4.64 a bushel, same as 20 years ago. These people don’t need a rock to fall on their heads to realize what’s going on. In the last four or so years, we must have spent well over $100,000 on this down-zoning issue, and all we got out of it was hate and a township (we are not a community right now) divided among old and new, with neither side willing to listen.
I will miss John Mele on the Planning Board. He always asked good, solid questions and made a difference when we had tough applications in front of us. I believe he loves this township as much as anyone, but he may have listened to the professional more than the people, along with many of us. And now it’s time to learn from our mistakes and make this a community again, and deal with the township problems, not our personal agenda.
I guess you could say the farmer is the root of all this evil: if it wasn’t for him, the developments wouldn’t be here now, and everyone would be happy. I don’t think so. The pressure for housing in this state is huge, and we have no choice if we want to save what we can from development. We must put down the egos at the door of these meetings and realize the only ones getting rich are the professionals at these meetings — at our expense, both out of our pockets and our future. The state wants us to listen to the TDR [Transfer of Development Rights] program so they can get the developer to give money to the farmer so he can farm for another five or 10 years or until the money runs out. This way, they can deal with the housing problems in the state and deed-restrict the land so they can build on it again in the future, when the housing issue comes again. Let’s face it, the sewer plant will already be working by then.
In closing, one might agree that we are a divided community on these issues, so where do we go from here?
Planning for the growth in Upper Freehold Township needs to be a continued process, and planned for the next five, 10 and 50 years. We have now shown that Band-Aid approaches (total 6-acre zoning) only leave us in the condition we are presently in. We should set aside property now for future schools, parks, library, [and] town centers.
Planning for future impact on our roads (improvements, widening, sidewalks) is critical for the future and safety of Upper Freehold. Planning the bypass of Route 539 has been a travesty. Needless to say, the traffic continues to deteriorate in front of our high school. We still need a plan.
Planning of a new school should come as no surprise; we need only look at Millstone, which experienced our growth a few years earlier. We may feel that this will be the last school. What if it isn’t?
Planning for commercial ratables for today and the future. How many of our longtime residents will be able to live in Upper Freehold if the taxes continue to climb? Our surrounding roads are taxed by other townships that have already leveraged these ratables.
After all is said and done, we need to do a better job planning for today and the future.
Joe Toscano is a resident of Upper Freehold Township