EAST WINDSOR: Township gets more green to stay more green

$850,000 coming from state

By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
   EAST WINDSOR — The township expects to soon have $850,000 to continue its open space preservation efforts.
   Mayor Janice Mironov announced Thursday that the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Garden State Preservation Trust have approved grants in the amount of $500,000 to the township and $350,000 to East Windsor Green Space Inc. under the Green Acres Program.
   The mayor said the money will be used to buy open space sites listed in the township’s state-approved Open Space and Recreation Plan.
   ”The township is looking at the possible acquisition of a 25-acre site on the south side of Airport Road, just west of the former East Windsor Speedway site,” she wrote in a press release. “Along with an adjoining 13.5-acre donated property and two neighboring Airport Road lots totaling 12 acres being donated by the developer of the speedway site, the total open space project would be over 50 acres.”
   Development firm Robertson Douglas is building about 50 single-family homes at the speedway site.
   The value of its donated land can be used as a required 50-percent match for the Green Acres funds, the mayor wrote.
   She later explained that any matching funds required through the Green Acres program normally come from the credited value of such farmland donations, county grants or developer’s funds deposited in the township’s open space account.
   Mayor Mironov said the township also is considering the purchase of a 43-acre property on Etra Road adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike and nearby residences on Philyet Drive.
   ”This parcel consists of woodlands, farmland and some wetlands,” she said. “These parcels are located in a rural area of the township where almost 1,000 acres of farmland also have already been preserved through the State Farmland Preservation Program.”
   Another parcel being eyed, the mayor said, is 19 acres of farmland on Old York Road, north of Conover Road, which is surrounded by 100 acres of farmland previously acquired by the township as open space.
   With these most recent grants, the mayor reported, the total amount of Green Acres funds approved through the state DEP to date for the township and East Windsor Green Space Inc. is more than $6.35 million, along with about $3 million in Mercer County open space funds.
   The township and East Windsor Green Space Inc., a nonprofit created by the township to maximize funding for open space acquisition, received notifications of the new grants in an April 7 letter from DEP Acting Commissioner Mark Mauriello.
   Mayor Mironov said the township is grateful.
   ”These funds are very important in enabling East Windsor Township to continue our ambitious program to acquire and preserve open space in East Windsor,” she said. “Preservation of open space and farmland remains a top priority of this township administration, and a key component of maintaining recreational opportunities and a healthy open land balance for the community.”
   The new grant is contingent upon the passage of the legislative appropriation.