The Monmouth County Planning Board has launched a study and plan for the future development, preservation and conservation of the county’s panhandle area.
The panhandle is the western-most portion of Monmouth County that includes Allentown, Roosevelt, Millstone and Upper Freehold. The area consists of 20 percent of the county’s land area and is bounded by Burlington, Middlesex, Mercer, and Ocean counties, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Freeholders.
“The goal of a Panhandle Region Plan is to help the communities prepare, both collectively and individually, for sustainable growth while preserving their environmental resources and farmlands and maintaining their unique history and local character,” Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry, who also sits on the Monmouth County Planning Board, said in the press release.
A Panhandle Regional Collaborative comprising representatives from each panhandle municipality, county and state officials and community stakeholder groups — chambers of commerce, environmental groups, historic and agricultural commissions and cultural organizations — will be participating in the year-long regional study that is being funded by a 2006 Smart Future Planning Grant awarded from the New Jersey Office of Smart Growth.
“The Panhandle Region is the fastest growing area of the county,” Freeholder John D’Amico, liaison to the Planning Board, said in the press release. “While the panhandle currently makes up less than 5 percent of the county’s population, it is demonstrating all the pressures of growth.”
He continued, “With the county taking the lead, the municipalities will have an opportunity to work with their neighbors to develop and to pursue shared planning goals on issues of regional significance.”
At their first meeting in late July, collaborative members began to identify and prioritize the issues of their greatest concern to their respective communities.
“Some of the topics already discussed include shared services, taxes, walkable communities, farm and open space preservation, infrastructure availability, traffic congestion, affordable housing, development/ sprawl/suburbanization, historic preservation, natural resources and agricultural support mechanisms,” D’Amico said. The target date for completion of the Panhandle Region Plan is July 2009.
“A collaborative and bottoms-up planning approach should provide us with a great plan by our target date,” Bonnie Goldschlag, assistant director of the Planning Department, said in the press release.
This is the Planning Board’s fourth regional study and is primarily defined by its agricultural heritage, historic towns and rural vistas.
Zunilda Rodriguez, AICP, principal planner for the Planning Board, is the project manager. Pennsylvania-based Maser Consulting will be assisting with the project.
Municipal action committees, public information sessions, a county Planning Board meeting, two newsletters and the county’s Web site will help inform the public of the study’s processes and findings.
Information on the Panhandle Region Plan can be already be found on the county’s Web site at www.visitmonmouth. com or by calling the Monmouth County Planning Board at 732 431-7460.