Township reports progress on program of open space land acquisition.
By: Leon Tovey
MONROE While the process has been slower than he would have liked, Joe Montanti, township Planning Board and Environmental Commission member, says progress is being made on a program of open space land acquisition launched by the township in the spring.
In May, the Township Council adopted a plan developed by Mr. Montanti that identified 52 parcels, totaling 1,575 acres, for acquisition as open space over the next two years. The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders added the listed properties to the county’s open space plan in August.
Mr. Montanti said in April that he hoped to see properties on the list’s top two priority tiers purchased by the end of this year and parcels on the priority three list purchased by the end of 2006.
Mr. Montanti said Friday that the township, working in conjunction with the Middlesex County Improvement Authority, has started contacting owners of the program’s highest priority parcels. However, he said that while many landowners seem amenable to the township’s plans for preserving their land, at least one has other plans.
Adventure Realty of Linden recently submitted an application to the Planning Board for a 67-unit subdivision on a 113.09-acre parcel at the intersection of Matchaponix and Spotswood-Englishtown roads near Daniel Ryan Memorial Park.
Mr. Montanti said planning officials had considered the parcel, which was subdivided in the late 1980s as the proposed site of Intesar Zaidi’s failed Rose Garden Estates, safe from development because of the presence of wetlands. But Adventure Realty’s application, which conforms to area zoning and came complete with a wetlands delineation for 67 units, underscored the need to move quickly with the acquisitions, he said.
"We had no idea the application was coming, but we put it near the top of our list because of its location," Mr. Montanti said. "It’s near Dan Ryan Park, it’s in that densely populated northern section of town, it’s one we want to preserve."
MCIA spokeswoman Jane Leal said Wednesday that the MCIA is set to approve engineering studies and appraisals of the property, as well as 32.7 acres on Perrineville Road across from Thompson Park, at its Nov. 9 meeting.
That would be the first step in the acquisition process, which could move very quickly once the studies are completed, she said, though she admitted it would likely be difficult and expensive.
In addition to those two properties and others on the list’s highest priority tier, Mr. Montanti said he has spoken with developers who own properties, or hold options on properties, in the list’s proposed Millstone River Watershed Conser-vation Area.
There are 14 parcels, totaling 699 acres, in the list’s second highest priority tier located along the Millstone River that would form the proposed conservation area.
Mr. Montanti said that while no applications for developments in that area have been submitted to the Planning Board, developers own three of the parcels outright and hold options on two more. Some of the parcels being eyed are located in the R-3A residential zone (lots at least 3 acres in size), while others are located within the farmland preservation district and the flood hazard control district.
Mr. Montanti said that while the zoning of the parcels might make development more difficult, it doesn’t make it impossible. In the current housing market, developers are finding that they can sell houses on lots far larger than was previously believed possible.
He said that in addition to seeking state and county funding to purchase those properties, he is hoping to raise funds for their acquisition through private sources, such as the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which is a major underwriter of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, a nonprofit watershed protection group.

