3 parcels draw look for preservation M
On April 5, the Township Committee introduced ordinances that will preserve the Pilcher Farm near the Charleston Springs Golf Course on Charles-ton Springs Road, the Mattei property on both sides of Charleston Spring Road and the Chiusano property on Backbone Hill Road.
"We’re finally beginning to use the 5-cent open space tax levy," said Committeeman Bill Kastning, the governing body’s liaison to Millstone’s Open Space and Farmland Preservation committee.
Ordinance No. 00-11, which would purchase the development rights to the property near the golf course from Edith Wills Pilcher, was scheduled for a second reading at the committee’s April 19 meeting. The Pilcher Farm is a 46-acre property.
"The ordinance will ensure that it is preserved forever as a farm," Kastning said.
The purchase of the development rights, he said, comes in conjunction with county and similar township efforts to purchase more land in the same area for open space preservation. He said the county and township are working together to preserve large, contiguous open spaces.
"It’s part of our greenway. Much of the area is wooded, so it’s good for wildlife, too," Kastning said.
The committeeman said if county and township efforts are successful, about 250 acres in that area will have been preserved.
Ordinance No. 00-12, to purchase the development rights to property from Jo Ann Mattei, and Ordinance No. 00-13, to purchase property from Nicholas and Josephine Chiusano, will come up for a second reading in early May.
The Mattei property is two parcels, one on each side of Charleston Springs Road. To-gether, the parcels are about 71 acres.
"We’re going to make sure those 71 acres can never be subdivided," Kastning said.
The township has not been able to come to an agreement to buy only the development rights to the Chiusano property, a 19-acre parcel, because the property is still viable and there were people interested in buying it outright. The township will instead buy the property outright.
"Since this is a wooded parcel, we’ll be going under the state’s Green Acres program, which means a 50 percent reimbursement," Kastning said.
He said Millstone will have to lay out the money for these properties now, but can expect significant reimbursements for each property from county and state open space preservation programs.
We’ve leveraging it through short-term financing," he said. "It’s not through state funding yet, but through our own taking of bond money or through the owners themselves taking on the mortgages."
Kastning said he’s glad to see the open space and farmland preservation tax being used proactively.
"We’ve made some really good progress here in wisely and judiciously using the tax dollars," he said.
Millstone’s 5-cent open space assessment is collected as part of a property owner’s annual tax bill. To the owner of a home assessed at $200,000, the 5-cent assessment comes to a payment of about $100 each year. To the owner of a home assessed at $400,000, the assessment totals about $200.