New Jersey - MONMOUTH COUNTY
Countywide program - Formed in 1981 - (Upper Freehold Township information illustrates local planning patterns.) - researched by Al Sokolow

OVERVIEW - Close to New York City, Monmouth County with its horse farms and seashore setting is a favored destination for high income commuters. With the coastal and northern parts of the county largely populated, growth pressures are concentrated in the inland and western sectors. More than 80 percent of all agricultural easement acres are located in one municipality, Upper Freehold Township, in the southwestern corner of the county. In part this is due to the municipality's aggressive promotion of the technique among landowners. The county now requires municipal cost sharing to site easements in particular townships.

EASEMENT ACTIVITY - 7,300 acres on 59 farms: equine, field crops, sod and nurseries. No dairy farms although this was once a principal farm commodity in Monmouth.
Goals: 46,000 acres by 2010.
Other Easement Programs: Easements on six farms purchased in fee by the Monmouth Conservation Foundation were transferred to the county and are included in the county total above. The state holds 295 easement acres in four farms-220 acres in seven farms are pending in the Planning Incentive Grant (PIG) program.
Total Agricultural Easements in County: Approximately 7,600 acres.

FUNDING
Acquisition Spending to Date: $62.9 million
Revenues: About 60 percent from state funds, 38 percent county and 2 percent municipal. The county recently established a cost share requirement for municipalities, using a sliding scale of 5 percent to 50 percent of the county cost per easement. The county share is funded by general fund appropriations. Partial donations from landowners to date are valued at about $3.3 million. Municipal contributions are from voter-approved property taxes. A voter-approved county open space tax funds parkland acquisitions and has not been applied to farmland protection.

GOVERNANCE - The program is overseen by the Monmouth County Agricultural Development Board (CADB), a body with nine voting members and one ex officio (county agricultural agent). Voting members represent different constituencies-Soil Conservation District, County Planning Board, Board of Agriculture and general public. The program staff are Planning Department employees on indefinite loan to the CADB.

STAFF AND OPERATING BUDGET - Three authorized staff (only one position was filled in early 2003). The program does not appear to have a separate operating budget.

ORIGINS - The Monmouth program and its CADB were organized in 1981-two years before the state funding program and requirement for county boards were legislated. A county planner led the effort to create the program. The first easement was acquired in 1987.

ACQUISITION PROCESS AND STRATEGY - The county uses a four-step review process prior to submitting locally approved applications to the state for further review and funding. The first three require the quantitative scoring of land evaluation, site assessment and development capacity. Applications can be rejected at each of these stages. The fourth stage involves obtaining option agreements from landowners, initiating appraisals and submission to the state. Quantitative scores prevail with very little discretion in the process by the CADB and other county officials. After state review including determination of state-local cost shares, easement deals are given final approval by the county Board of Freeholders, pertinent municipal board and the state ADB.
Rating of Parcels: Quantitative (1) LAND EVALUATION: agricultural productivity, with the local NRCS office providing soil quality ratings. (2) SITE ASSESSMENT: top categories are contiguity, planning compatibility, farm management and parcel size. (3) DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY: eliminates parcels that would be kept in agriculture anyhow, based on calculations of road frontage and relationship of parcel size to required minimum size for building.
Other Criteria: Enrollment in an Agricultural Development Area is a minimum standard. A minimum parcel size requirement was eliminated a few years ago to allow the review of small parcels with high easement values. In the only display of discretion, on landowner and appeal and the submission of contrary information, the CADB can reverse the earlier denial of an application.

CONNECTIONS TO LOCAL PLANNING AND LAND USE POLICIES - While the county runs the easement program, planning and zoning are township functions.
Upper Freehold Township: The township has several farmland protection policies, as well as fiscally supporting the easement program. A version of cluster development, the Farmland Preservation Subdivision Ordinance allows the building of a parcel's entitled residences to be concentrated on one-quarter of the land, with the remaining farmland preserved under an easement. AFT prepared a cost of community services study for the municipality several years ago.
Zoning: State law does not allow exclusive agricultural zoning. The basic residential zoning density for Upper Freehold is one unit to two acres.

DEMOGRAPHICS
2000 Population: 615,300
1990-2000 Population Change: +62,000 residents; +11 percent

AGRICULTURAL LAND
59,405 acres
Conversion to Urban Use: Comparative conversion data not available.

OTHER AGRICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
1997 Market Value: $67.9 million Number of Farms: 874
Principal Commodities: Nursery products, vegetables, sweet corn, melons, equine

MAP NARRATIVE - EASEMENT GEOGRAPHY (PROGRAM MAP)
More than 80 percent of the acres under agricultural easement are concentrated in just one of Monmouth's 53 municipalities-Upper Freehold Township in the southwestern corner, the furthest part of the county from the New York region. Several contiguous blocks of easements here form a partial ring throughout the municipality. Upper Freehold also contains the most concentrated areas of farmland left in the county. The coastal and northern areas of Monmouth are largely urbanized.

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