Franklin Township preserved the Suydam farm, by working with Somerset County and the state of New Jersey. We should be able to do the same in North Brunswick. However, the Pulda farm’s open space could soon become highdensity housing due to a June 16 ruling by state Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien.
The North Brunswick mayor and Township Council ignored the 880 people who signed a petition to save the farm, and the many supporters of the North Brunswick Residents Against High Density Housing (NBR) who have succeeded up until now in saving the Pulda farm. The North Brunswick mayor and council instead listened to developer Jack Morris and approved Morris’ request for spot rezoning, which will allow Morris to build 325 units on the 68-acre farm, a density of about five units per acre.
Jack Morris and his companies gave $248,500 to the Middlesex County Democratic Organization from Sept. 16, 1998, through Oct. 12, 2004, and the Middlesex County Democratic Organization contributed $79,800 to the North Brunswick Democratic Organization. Morris used his many different companies to make the $248,500 donations: Edgewood Properties, Smith Street Properties Inc., Jackson Developers Inc., Sami Properties Inc., JSM at Beaver Brook LLC, JSM at Talmadge LLC, JSM at Bridgewater LLC, JSM at Galloway LLC, JSM at Galloway LLC, JSM at Timber Glenn LLC, JSM at New Durham LLC.
The clock has been ticking since 2004 and now, with Judge O’Brien’s ruling, time may have run out. I call on the North Brunswick Township Council and the Middlesex County freeholders to take action now to preserve the Pulda Farm and its history, by working hard and seriously with the state of New Jersey to achieve what Franklin Township achieved this year: the 130-acre Suydam Farm is on the state’s preservation rolls, so the Suydam Farm can remain open land for all time. The development rights of the Suydam Farm cost $12,354,218. Franklin Township paid $6,282,000, Somerset County paid $2 million and the state’s Agricultural Development Committee paid $4,072,218.
The Middlesex County freeholders gave $3 million of taxpayers’ money from the open space fund to build a swimming pool in Perth Amboy, and gave East Brunswick $1.5 million for an entertainment project. These are just two of the projects the county freeholders chose to fund. Sadly, the county freeholders chose not to help preserve open space on the Pulda farm in North Brunswick.
The Pulda farm has a 200- year-old farmhouse, high water tables, and continues to cultivate corn: three of many good reasons the Pulda farm is exactly the wrong place for development, especially high-density housing. If we sit idly by as the Pulda farm becomes just one more high-density housing development, we rob our environment, and we rob our children and all future generations of the Pulda farm’s open space, beauty and its crucial role in the balance between development and open space. How could we answer our children, our friends and neighbors, and all future generations, if they had to ask “Why did North Brunswick give up North Brunswick’s last farm?”
I applaud the successful preservation of the Suydam farm and look forward to saying of the Pulda farm what was has been said of the Suydam farm: “The big winners are the people in town. They have open farmland instead of acres of condos.”
Mary Chyb
Republican Candidate
Township Council
North Brunswick