The Burlington County Commissioners and the Chesterfield Township Committee held a ceremony last June to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first New Jersey farms to enter preservation.
The Burlington County Commissioners have amended the county’s farmland preservation rules so towns will no longer have to contribute a cost share for most preservation deals.
The change was approved by the commissioners last month and will spare most municipalities the expense of contributing local funds to farmland preservation deals without impacting the county’s aggressive preservation goals.
Under the previous rules, most municipalities were required to contribute between 5% to 20% of the cost to preserve a farm. The policy was put in place decades ago, when the county began collecting its dedicated tax for farmland and open-space preservation and park development and resources were limited.
The new policy eliminates that requirement for local cost share under most circumstances. It will not create an additional drain on county funds because the state now covers an 80% share of the cost to preserve most farms, part of a 2025 update to its formula that calculates the value of farmland development rights.
The county is already benefiting from the new Statewide Preservation Formula, which appraises the value of a farm’s development rights beyond traditional market value to assign additional worth based on a property’s agriculture and natural resource characteristics.
Since the change took effect, the county has seen interest in preservation – including from the owners of long-targeted farms – and has finalized the preservation of two farms equaling about 197 acres. Tentative agreements with the owners of another 10 total more than 1,400 acres.
