PLUMSTED: Farm No. 34 is preserved

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
   PLUMSTED — A 22-acre farm has become the 34th to be preserved in the township.
   Ocean County purchased the development rights to the 22-acre Perry Christmas Tree Farm, located on Evergreen Road, earlier this month, said Mayor Ron Dancer.
   ”Environmentally, the land preservation programs help preserve the township’s rural character, water supply and quality of life,” he said. “Economically, the preservation programs have also prevented the construction of more than 2,000 homes to save taxpayers millions in school taxes and public services.”
   Ryan Allen, a senior planner with the Ocean County Planning Department, said Plumsted is the main focus of the county’s Farmland Preservation Program.
   ”Plumsted Township is host to over 90 percent of Ocean County’s preserved farmland —over 2,500 acres are preserved in Plumsted alone,” said Mr. Allen, who is in charge of the program. “Just by the nature of the agricultural layout in the county, most of our applications come through Plumsted.”
   The tree farm, he added, was preserved through a cost-share grant partnership with the state Agricultural Development Committee. The total combined cost of the purchase was $749,232, of which the Preservation Program paid about 40 percent and the Development Committee paid about 60 percent. Plumsted itself did not pay any money for the property’s development rights, Mr. Allen said.
   The money went to the farm’s owners in exchange for the rights to develop the land, deed-restricting it so houses cannot be built there.
   When including other preservation programs, more than 3,000 acres of farm and woodlands have been preserved in the township.
   Given the percentage of the township that has been preserved, Mr. Allen said he was satisfied with the state of things, but that the department would be happy to examine further applications from the township. The preservation of the 250-acre Grant farm on Route 539 and Colliers Mills Road earlier this year was a major boon to the program, he explained.
   ”That was a big application we’ve been looking at for a long, long time, so it kind of marked the milestone for us,” he said.