Minutes from the Pittsgrove Township Environmental Commission meeting

October 25, 2004

Herb Wegner called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M.

The Pledge of Allegiance was given.

Open Public Meetings Act: This meeting was advertised in the designated official newspapers (Today’s Sunbeam and the Daily Journal). The required notice was filed with the Township Clerk and was posted on the Public Notice Bulletin Board in the Municipal Building.

Meetings have been scheduled for the 4^th Monday of every month, except for the month of December.

Environmental Commission Members present were: Regular Members Greg Hickson, Bob Morse, Debbie Turner-Fox, and Herb Wegner; Alternate Members Kevin Garrison and Trish Jankauskas; and Associate Members; David Hunt and Robert Widdifield.

Approval of Minutes of September 27, 2004 Meeting.

Robert Widdifield identified the unidentified woman on the bottom of page 2 as Marcie Eachus.

Moved to approve by Bob Morse; seconded by Greg Hickson. All were in favor.

Bob Morse has agreed to serve as Vice-Chair and Debbie Turner-Fox has agreed to serve as Treasurer.

Moved to approve by Kevin Garrison; seconded by Greg Hickson. All were in favor.

Debbie Turner-Fox presented a draft of the By-Laws to the Commission.

An existing template in the township and in the county was used for this draft.

Herb suggested that the members take the draft home to review. The draft will be forwarded by email. Any comments or suggestions should be emailed to Herb. These will be brought up at the next meeting. The final version will be posted on the web site.

Robert Widdified brought up that no sub committees were addressed in the draft. Debbie pointed out that 1.2-2 does address the issue of sub committees.

Don Pensa, and Norm Lenchitz from the Agricultural Advisory Committee were introduced and welcomed by Herb. The Environmental Committee welcomes public comments.

The results of the Public Hearing were emailed to everyone. There were approximately 100 people who attended, and 53 items were recognized. We will come back to this at the end of the evening.

Herb’s article in the paper was also emailed to everyone.

The Environmental Resource Inventory is due on October 30^th. Herb has a rough draft of the narrative with charts that he will email everyone. A lot of the data was taken from the State’s data and local sightings. Herb believes that this is pretty accurate.

When Herb receives the ERI he will email it to everyone and the committee will have two weeks to review. The committee needs to get back to Herb by our next meeting, which is November 22nd. The ERI should be firmed up by then for the Commission’s approval. The ERI must go to the Planning Board, and then will be an appendix to the Master Plan. Herb will put page numbers and the date on the draft before he emails it to everyone.

The OSP should be in our hands by December 2^nd. Comments should be to Herb by the special meeting on December the 20^th.

Farmland Preservation was first on the list of concerns at the Public Hearing. Last January a grant was applied for and has been approved. Herb is working with the farmers to apply for the grant. Herb has helped two farmers complete the applications and he is working with another farmer to complete another application. The state will pay 70%, and the county will pay 15%, leaving only 15% to be paid by the township. The biggest problem is convincing the landowners, and the farmers what the advantages are to preserving these lands. Dave Hunt and Trish Jankuaskas volunteered to help Herb with this project.

Debbie Turner-Fox brought up that we are hitting the farmers on a one on one basis. She asked if we could do a blanket approach?

Herb said that he sent out 200 letters to prospective farmland preservation candidates with no response. He then sent out ten letters and still received no response.

Bob Widdifield suggested that we send out success stories of farms that have been preserved.

Don Pensa suggested putting up signs for preserving the farms.

Herb informed the group that he has been asking the State for two years for a “preserved farm” sign. He is still pushing the State on this.

There are a couple of farms that are coming up for auction at the end of the month. Herb and Norm Lenchitz will send emails about upcoming sales.

No areas are excluded for Farmland Preservation. Some areas that have been preserved within the last few months are the 227 acre Centerton Golf Course across from Parvin State Park and the 41 acre Kilby property on Crow Pond Road. To be preserved soon are the Crystal farm on Alvine Road and the 347 acre Greenberg property east of the Centerton Golf Course. South of Running Deer Golf Course is another 87 acre farm that is being considered for preservation by Green Acres.

Greg Hickson was asked if there are any other issues before the Planning Board. We were informed that there were a couple of major and minor issues. ERI gives the Commission a list of possible concerns and informs us about wetlands and endangered species. Because of that information, we are kept up to date on the issues so we can add our input. Our job is to keep people doing the right thing. The area that we might be working with the Planning Board would be the environmental studies of potential developments.

Going back to the Discussion of Issues brought out at the Public Hearing:

Many issues were brought out including:

-Ribbon development

-Building along the roads

-Destroying our vistas

-Provide scenic byways

At the last Planning Board meeting Herb discussed the need to address the above concerns. These issues will hopefully be included in the OSP, and become part of our Master Plan. Ordnances can then be written to address these issues, providing methods to implement regulatory actions. Our thinking has to be for 20 years from now. If we take the appropriate steps now, we will still have some roads which look like country roads. The scenic corridors will help reduce the problem of ribbon development.

Greg Hickson – The Cluster Ordinance needs to be revisited.

Marcie Eachus (Public Comment) – We would love to keep the township rural. We can still get around the township easily, but if we have ribbon development, the speed limit will drop and it will be harder to get around. We have to get creative with the ordinances, but maintain a certain population level. From Ternay’s to Anderson’s, we have a potential for 500 homes. Can we address this issue in an environmental way, because it is an environmental issue?

Bob Morse & Herb Wegner – Yes.

On December 20^th, there will be a special meeting of the Environmental Commission for a final review of the draft Open Space and Recreation Plan. This plan will be forwarded to the Planning Board for a Public Hearing in January. The Plan should be finalized following the hearing and forwarded to the Township Committee for approval. We will need the ERI and OSRP as working documents in order for us to apply for a Green Acres Grant in mid January 2005. ERI’s and OSRP’s are not etched in stone for eternity; they can always be updated in the future as conditions warrant.

Herb is pursuing purchasing the abandoned railroad between Elmer and Husted Station Road, a stretch of approximately 5 miles. One piece of property has been sold to a church, which is believed to using it as church grounds rather than for building purposes. We are not advocating an immediate use of this railroad bed, but buying it now is the only way it could be made available for passive recreation in the future. In making decisions such as this, we have to be thinking 20 to 30 years down the road.

All are strongly encouraged to attend the meeting on November 22^nd.

Bob Widdiford likes the idea of Open Space Tax on new homes.

Bob Morse wanted to know when we should bring up new ordinances?

Greg Hickson said that anytime is a good time.

Herb – In January our OSRP should be finalized, which would be the time to push for implementing ordinances.

Greg Hickson – Harry Dare has been writing our ordinances; we should present our ideas to him.

Bob Miller (Public Comment) said that he has been here for five and one half years, and is concerned that the community will end up overpopulated and in the same boat as other communities. He can already see the traffic building up.

Herb Wegner – in other townships, developers bought up the farms. Most of our farms are still in the hands of the farmers. Additionally, many of the new houses in the Township are extremely large and expensive, and are really out of character for our township. Some municipalities have regulated the size of homes in certain areas of the community.

It was moved and seconded by Debbie Turner-Fox and Greg Hickson that the meeting be adjourned. The meeting was adjourned at 9:17 PM.

Trish Jankauskas, Acting Secretary