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260-acre Plumsted farm preserved

Land area bigger than Seaside Heights, says Mayor Ron Dancer

By John Dunphy, Managing Editor
   PLUMSTED — The township added No. 32 to its list of preserved farms late last month with the acquisition of the Grant farm, a 260-acre property off Colliers Mills Road, Route 539 and Long Swamp Road.
   Mayor Ron Dancer made the official announcement this week in his weekly “Town Talk” column.
   The property has been owned by the Grant family since the 1930s. Raymond and Wilma Grant, who are retired, still live in the farmhouse and maintain lifetime rights to the house under the agreement with Ocean County, which covered 100 percent of the $6 million to purchase the property. It is currently leased for vegetables and field crop farming by Dennis Krowicki and is the single largest farm, in acreage and dollar amount, to be preserved from development in Plumsted, according to Mayor Dancer in the release.
   To place the size of the Grant farm in perspective, the mayor said, “the entire size of the Ocean County municipality, Seaside Heights, could be placed within the boundaries of the Grant Family Farm and still have about 35 acres left as open space.”
   This is the first farm preserved in Plumsted this year. The township’s 32 preserved farms represent the highest number in Ocean County, which boasts 42, and one of the highest in the state. To date, over 3,000 acres of farm and woodlands have been preserved in Plumsted Township.
   Mayor Dancer said the Grant farm has been eyed by the township and Ocean County since Plumsted began actively preserving farm properties in the mid-1980s, when he served on the Ocean County Agricultural Development Board.
   ”This was really the keystone to our preservation program,” he said. “It has extensive road frontage, which lends itself to being subdivided by developers if the Grant family were to have considered selling it.”
   ”We were very fortunate in this acquisition,” Mayor Dancer continued. “The county purchased it 100 percent outright without a contribution from the township or New Jersey.”
   The county had identified this farm because of its location to the Kirkwood aquifer, Mayor Dancer noted. In addition, Route 539 is the dividing line between the Atlantic and Delaware basins.
   ”Everything to the east of 539, where this is located, drains to the Atlantic Ocean. Everything to the west drains to the Delaware River. They call it the coastal divide. This is an area where Kirkwood provides the majority of underground water supply for the Pinelands and Ocean County municipalities to the south and southeast. That was very important.”
   David McKeon, planning director for Ocean County, also noted the farm’s size and its importance to Ocean County, for both agriculture and open space protection.
   ”It is open space. So, by its very nature, it addresses the overdevelopment issue.
   ”But it’s farmland as well, a unique sort of open space,” Mr. McKeon said. “It’s not just important as open space. Agriculture is its own industry. It’s a way of life more predominant years and years ago. Farmland preservation is a way to preserve that industry and way of life, not only as a reminder of what used to be, but what we also consider a viable industry in New Jersey.”
   While both the county and Plumsted had expressed interest in preserving the property for two decades, Mayor Dancer said, the family had not openly expressed interest in preserving the property or selling it off to a developer.
   ”The Grant family was content to continue farming,” he said. “They resisted offers from preservation and development. They are just a farming family. We have over the years consistently spoke with them about preservation.”
   ”I think sometimes when the preservation program first started, there was fear of government (involvement),” he said. “But, many people have seen the success of the preservation program. They know once they are in the program, they are not faced with these governmental regulations or bureaucratic maze.”
   Mayor Dancer said he wanted to commend the Grant family “for their love of farming and the farm itself. They could have sold this farm to developers at any time. This is a developer’s delight. I really want to commend them.”
   Mr. McKeon said a few smaller farms, including several in Plumsted, are currently being considered for preservation. As the Grant farm was the biggest yet to be preserved, it received priority, he said.