By Davy James, Staff Writer
On the heels of approving the purchase of the 5.75-acre Rocky Top Dog Park for open space at the Township Council meeting two weeks ago, township officials said any future open space purchases are on hold for the time being.
”The purchase of the dog park still hasn’t been completed so once we get that done, we’ll see where we are in terms of what’s left in the open space trust fund,” said Mayor Frank Gambatese. “We don’t want to make any decisions to procure any more land until we see where we are.”
The purchase of the Rocky Top Dog Park, located at 4106 Route 27, will cost $360,000, which will come out of the approximately $4.3 million remaining in the township’s open space trust fund. The park will connect with an existing property owned by the township to create a contiguous 26-acre open space area.
Mayor Gambatese said the township also is waiting for the purchase of the 188-acre Pulda farm property on Davidson-Mill Road to be finalized.
In December 2009, a joint agreement between the township and Middlesex County was agreed upon to purchase the Pulda farm for open space. The agreement called for the township to contribute $2.5 million from its open space trust fund and Middlesex County to contribute the remaining balance from its open space fund.
Once the recent open space purchases have been competed, the township can look at other available properties for open space consideration, according to Mayor Gambatese.
Over the past 10 years, the township has acquired approximately 2,000 acres of land for preservation from development and to be used for active and passive recreation. Coupled with open space purchases by Middlesex County and land owned by the state, about 3,945-acres of the township’s 26,215 total acres has been preserved for open space.
”We try to make sure we have open space purchases all over town because everybody pays into the open space trust fund through their taxes,” Mayor Gambatese said. “The dog park may not be a huge purchase in terms of acreage, but it adds to the land already preserved for open space in that area, and it expands it.”
Mayor Gambatese said the township uses a criteria when looking at possible open space purchases that analyzes different aspects of the land itself. For instance, if the land is located adjacent to another parcel already preserved as open space, it makes the purchase more appealing to create a larger area of preserved land.
The township also looks for land in developable areas or for properties that may soon face development in order to keep the township’s population under control.
”We have to look very seriously at each piece of land to determine if that’s land we want developed,” Mayor Gambatese said. “We look at what the land is zoned for and what’s around the land right now in terms of development. That’s important because it keeps the number of students in our school system down and helps control traffic problems in the township.”
Mayor Gambatese said with more than 40,000 residents living in South Brunswick, the effect of an influx of more residents due to increased development could be more than the township would be able to handle.
”We can’t sustain 80,000 people living in this township,” he said. “Open space purchases keep the development of this town to a reasonable level, and that’s what the purchase of the open space trust fund is to me.”
Mayor Gambatese said the township has been approached recently by people interested in selling land that could be preserved for open space, but nothing will be done until all of the recent purchases have been finalized to see what remains in the open space trust fund.
”We won’t do anything until we find out what the remaining fund balance is,” he said. “When it comes to the importance of open space, you have to realize that not every parcel of land can be developed. For instance, what happens to the animals that live there? It’s just not an environmentally sound way to do business if we’re all sitting on top of each other. We have to protect certain areas so everybody lives a more healthy life.”

