TheMonmouth County Planning Board (MCPB) unanimously approved a new farmland preservation plan draft at itsMay 19meeting. TheMCPB and theMonmouth County Agricultural Development Board developed the plan, which notes that farming is a significant component of the county's economy, and farmland is an irreplaceable natural resource.

The plan's main objectives are to guide the county's efforts in preserving its remaining farmland and to maintain a viable agricultural industry.

The plan sets preservation goals in one-year, five-year and ten-year increments and lays out easement acquisition efforts.

The county's last farmland preservation plan was adopted in 2000. Since that time, Monmouth County has preserved thousands more acres of farmland while development has taken thousands of agricultural acres out of production. Thus, the county recognized the importance of updating the 2000 plan.

According to the new document, agricultural lands account for approximately 18.5 percent ofMonmouth County. The percentage decreased from 27.3 percent in 1983.

The depletion of county farmland extends beyond the last 25 years. Farmland acreage has been in significant decline since the 1950s, around the time the Garden State Parkway was completed. The draft plan notes that there are hardly any agricultural lands left to the north and east of the Parkway.

According to the 2002 United States Census of Agriculture, Monmouth County has 892 farms, which places it fourth in the state for the highest number of farms. The average farm size in Monmouth County is 53 acres and themedian size is 15 acres, according to the census.

For comparison, the average size of a New Jersey farm is 81 acres and the median size is 22 acres.

Two of the largest farms in Monmouth County are Princeton Nurseries, which includes 1,600 acres in Upper Freehold, and Perretti Farms, which has 1,000 acres, including 700 that have been preserved, in Upper Freehold.

Last year, Princeton Nurseries announced a three-year phase-out of its operations.

The remaining agricultural land in Monmouth County is inland and not in coastal communities. The county has 53 municipalities but only 12 have a significant amount of farmland.

In terms of farmland assessed acreage, the top five agricultural municipalities in the county are Upper Freehold, Millstone, Howell, Colts Neck andManalapan, according to 2004 New Jersey farmland assessment data. The other five towns that round out the top ten for agricultural land in Monmouth County are Freehold Township,Marlboro,Middletown, Holmdel and Wall. Roosevelt Borough and Tinton Falls also have sizable concentrations of farmland.

Upper Freehold ranked No. 2 in the state for total farmland assessed acres in 2004.As of June 2007, the township ranked No. 1 in New Jersey for total preserved acres.

In 2004, Millstone Township ranked in the top 50municipalities in the state for its number of farmland assessed acres at No. 30.

Both Upper Freehold and Millstone have the most notable concentrations of nursery and horticultural lands in the state due to the presence of Princeton, Lustgarten and Halka nurseries.

The county's new farmland plan notes thatNew Jersey farmland assessment data from2004 reported that the county has 853 acres used for equines, which underestimates the county's horse farm acreage when considering land used for pasture and hay production.

The county said 2007 and 2008 have been very strong years in terms of agricultural easement acquisitions. As of Aug. 15, 2007, the county had 40 projects in nine different municipalities under contract to close. The county anticipates having closed on over 1,000 acres in 2007 alone.

Although 2007-08 were good years for agricultural easement acquisitions, the county does not believe the pace will continue. The new plan notes that land values in the county have risen exponentially in the past five years and Garden State Preservation Trust coffers have been depleted.

"Even with creative funding strategies, such as installment purchase agreements (IPAs), availablemoney will not go as far in the future, limiting how many farms and how many acres the county, state and municipalities can preserve in a given year," the new plan states. "The good news is that landowner interest in the farmland preservation program is very strong especially given the softening of the real estate market for new construction and higher-end homes in the last year or so."

Weighing these factors, trends and limitations, the county's five-year cumulative acquisition goal is 15,765 acres and its 10- year goal is 18,840 acres.

In Millstone, which currently has 648 preserved farmland acres, the five-year goal is 2,100 acres and the ten-year goal is 2,750 acres. Upper Freehold, which had 7,346 preserved acres as of last year, has a fiveyear goal of 9,000 acres and a ten-year goal of 10,000 acres. Roosevelt, which has 257 acres in preservation, has a five-year and ten-year goal of 290 acres, according to the new plan.

Upper Freehold Township Administrator Barbara Bascomsaid the county's farmland preservation plan is an important part of the Planning Incentive Grant (PIG) program. She noted that the county has targeted several large farms in Upper Freehold for preservation.

Bascom said the amount of funds that the state allocates toMonmouth County for the easement purchases is vital.

"The allocated amount is used to supplement the county and municipal share of the acquisition," she said. "It assists by leveraging the funds available from Monmouth County and Upper Freehold Township to acquire more acreage."

Bascom said Upper Freehold has submitted a new farmland preservation plan to the county in connection with its application for PIG funds.

"If awarded we will also be provided with a state share to be used," Bascomsaid.

Bascom explained that if the county receives a grant and uses a portion of it for Upper Freehold Township farm development easement applications, the state sharemight be 60 percent, the county share might be 24 percent and the township share might be 16 percent. She noted that similar funding percentages would be used if the municipality receives funding.

"Without the county program we would be limited to our grant allocation, if received, without the state funding to either of us," she said. "The county and municipality would have to share the total easement cost and we would not have the ability to acquire asmany acres. In addition to the easement costs we would have to bear the full expense for all the ancillary costs, such as surveys and appraisals."

The county's farmland preservation plan draft can be viewed at www.monmouthcountyplanning. com