Farmland and Open Space in Montgomery: The New Preservation Plan, Explained

What was adopted

On October 12, 2026 the Planning Board adopted “Montgomery Township’s Comprehensive Municipal Farmland Preservation Plan” dated August 2026 “as an element to the Montgomery Township Master Plan.” It replaces the plan adopted in 2010. The board heard the plan on September 28 and put off the vote so members could read the 254 pages. On October 12, according to the uncorrected captions, the Chair asked whether anyone had questions, “ONE OF THE REASONS WE DEFERRED IT TO THIS MEETING.” No one did, and the roll call was unanimous.

The plan was prepared by consultant Tara Kenyon of Kenyon Planning and presented with the township’s Open Space and Stewardship Director. The Agricultural Advisory Committee reviewed it and recommended adoption. Its main numbers:

	2010 plan	2026 plan
Farmland-assessed land	5,594 acres	4,364.32 acres
Permanently preserved farmland	1,136 acres	2,281.63 acres on 34 farms
”Targeted” farms still to preserve	23 farms, 1,139 acres	19 farms, 852.99 acres

The plan says farmland covers 3,698.50 acres, 17.79 percent of the township. It also says “more than half of existing farmland has been lost over the last thirty years.” The township reports that, counting open space, more than 8,000 acres, or 39 percent of its land, are preserved.

How farmland preservation works

Preservation in New Jersey is voluntary. The landowner sells a development easement, and the farm stays in private hands. Asked on September 28 what preservation means, the consultant said (uncorrected captions): “THE LANDOWNER, THE FARMER STILL OWNS THE LAND. THE TOWNSHIP DOESN’T OWN THE LAND, BUT WE BUY AN EASEMENT … IT CAN ONLY BE USED AS AGRICULTURE IN PERPETUITY. AND THE DEED RUNS WITH THE LAND.”

Several bodies are involved:

• The State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) runs the state program. It sets the eligibility rules, certifies a market value for each easement and pays the largest share.
• The Somerset County Agriculture Development Board draws the county’s Agriculture Development Areas, the only places where state money can be spent. It holds and inspects most of the easements bought through Montgomery’s program, and it hears Right to Farm disputes.
• The township takes part through the state’s Municipal Planning Incentive Grant, which Montgomery joined in 2004. To stay eligible, it must keep an adopted farmland plan with a project area and a targeted farm list, re-adopt the plan at least every ten years, and file an application each year by December 15. That is the main reason for the new plan.
• Inside the township, the Open Space and Stewardship Director handles applications and landowners. The five-member Agricultural Advisory Committee reviews them. The Township Committee approves every purchase in public.

Who pays. In the municipal program the usual split is 60 percent state, 20 percent county, 20 percent township. On easements above $50,000 an acre, or when the price exceeds the state’s certified value by more than 10 percent, the township pays more. Non-profits such as Montgomery Friends of Open Space and D&R Greenway Land Trust can bring their own state grants. Montgomery also uses “hybrid” deals. The township buys land as open space, often with state Green Acres money, and keeps it farmed under agricultural easements or leases. The plan counts 625.07 acres on 13 farms preserved this way.

What a deed of easement restricts. The land is limited to agriculture, with limits on soil disturbance. It cannot be subdivided without approval. Replacement houses need county and state sign-off. Any “exception area” left out of the easement is fixed at closing and cannot be moved later. The plan says a preservation typically takes 12 to 18 months. Under a state formula adopted in April 2025, landowners can be offered 80 to 90 percent of the land’s full market value for the easement.

Farmland assessment is different. A farm can pay lower property taxes under farmland assessment without being preserved. On September 28, township staff said much of the farmland lost since 2010 had been held “UNDER FARMLAND ASSESSMENT” by owners until they could develop it: “IT’S DEVELOPMENT PRESSURE, FRANKLY.”

The Right to Farm Act (N.J.S.A. 4:1C-9) protects commercial farms that use accepted practices from nuisance claims and some local rules. Complaints go to the county board, which holds a public hearing. The plan lists ten Right to Farm matters in Montgomery from 2000 to 2025. Montgomery has had its own right-to-farm ordinance since 1990. The plan recommends the state’s free Agricultural Mediation Program as a first step in disputes.

What the plan says

Targets and goals. The 19 targeted farms each meet the state’s soil and tillability minimums and sit inside both the county’s Agriculture Development Area and the township’s project area. The project area covers the whole township except built-up and commercial areas. The goals are 170.6 acres by the end of 2027, 341.2 by 2031 and 341.2 by 2036. “There is no mandate that we have to absolutely meet these goals,” the consultant told the board.

Cost. The plan takes the county’s ten-year range of $12,281 to $34,201 an acre, averages it to $23,241, and uses $25,000 an acre, which also covers title, survey and legal costs. Preserving every targeted acre would cost $21,325,000: $12,795,000 from the state, $4,265,000 from the county and $4,265,000 from the township. The plan warns that a landowner’s asking price “could be higher.”

One targeted farm is part of the Kenvue holding. The largest farm on the list is printed as “Johnson & Johnson,” Block 13001 Lot 15, 125.71 acres. That lot, at 76 Grandview Road, is one of the two parcels in the former Kenvue holding. It was deeded to the four Grandview LLCs in December 2025. The list was last re-approved on September 11, 2025, before the sale, so the owner name is out of date. The redevelopment study the township ordered in September covers only the other parcel, Block 14001 Lot 2. Being on the targeted list does not restrict an owner. It only makes the land eligible for state cost-sharing if the owner chooses to sell an easement.

Other findings. The township’s acreage of farmland-assessed land is falling. Planning Board member Paul Blodgett, named by The Montgomery News, said on September 28 that the township is preserving more farmland while “THE LAND THAT’S ACTUALLY FARMED IS ACTUALLY GOING DOWN,” mostly in hay. The member asked whether the plan could address small farms and food security. The consultant said the state does not require that and suggested raising it with the state. The plan also opposes ground-mounted solar on active farmland and important farm soils. It notes that preserved farms may generate power only up to 110 percent of their own needs.

Figures that do not reconcile. The plan’s table of preserved acreage by program adds up, at 34 farms and 2,281.63 acres. The cost columns do not. The rows add to about $24.8 million in total cost and $11.7 million in township share. The printed totals are $13,720,035.03 and $3,579,483.35. Elsewhere the plan gives “over $16,161,737.62” in total spending. Which figure is right is a question for the township.

Relationship to the Master Plan. The farmland plan is one element of the Master Plan. The 2026 reexamination now under way lists it among the elements it reviews. The plan quotes the 2017 reexamination’s objective to “safeguard and promote the preservation of farmland, open space, and woodlands.” See the reexamination explainer.

Recent preservation

The plan’s list of preserved farms has no new farmland easement dated after June 16, 2020. Since then, some targeted land has been preserved in other ways. The plan removes a Route 518 farm “preserved December 15, 2020.” Planet Princeton reported that the township bought it as open space for $2 million, with the county paying 25 percent. The plan also removes 213.67 acres of Carrier Clinic Foundation land “preserved December 21, 2021.” The plan says applications “continue to be submitted,” but none is pending on the public record.

The money: the open space tax

Since a 1998 referendum, Montgomery has charged a dedicated open space tax, now four cents per $100 of assessed value. It raised $1,621,732 in 2025, and the 2026 levy is $1,618,129.58. The county charges its own open space tax, 5.4 cents per $100 on Montgomery bills in 2026. On the 2026 average assessed home of $505,749, that is about $202 a year to the township fund and about $273 to the county’s (our arithmetic). The township uses the money for land, easements, upkeep and debt on past purchases. It has also issued bonds for open space and farmland, “totaling over 56 million dollars since 1986,” the plan says.

State Green Acres money stretches the fund further. In April 2026 the Committee corrected a 2024 error in its grant paperwork. It then authorized raising the township’s Green Acres grant for “Open Space Acquisition 5” from $7,825,000 to $9,525,000, with a matching township share. The current balance of the Open Space Trust Fund is not in any document we found.

The rest of the 2026 open-space record

• Forbes/Rader, 690 Route 601 (about 11.42 acres). On December 4, 2025 the Committee authorized a purchase agreement and due diligence for this land, “for agriculture, open space, recreation, conservation, public pathway and other municipal purposes.” On July 16, 2026 it accepted a $125,000 Somerset County open space grant toward the purchase. The price and closing date are not public. The parcel shares a tax block with part of the Kenvue land but is a different property.
• Dayflower Drive gift (8.868 acres). On August 20, 2026 the Committee adopted Ordinance #26-1780, accepting Block 6001 Lot 33.03 as a gift from Harlingen Associates LLC, developer of the 54-unit Country Classics at Montgomery. The land is to be used “for open space, conservation, recreation and municipal purposes.” No one spoke at the hearing.
• Smaller items. The township closed on a 1.8-acre forested donation on Dutchtown-Harlingen Road (reported September 3). It added a Green Acres restriction to the deed of the Jefferson lot, bought in 2024 with about $88,609 in Green Acres reimbursement. On October 1 it listed a possible acquisition of Block 34001 Lot 7 (“Rossbach”) for closed-session discussion. Any purchase must be approved in public.
• The state Corrections lands (about 395 acres). On March 5, 2026 the Open Space and Stewardship Director presented what the minutes call “the largest acquisition of property by the Township.” It covers two Department of Corrections parcels: 188 acres around Montgomery High School and 207 acres at Burnt Hill and Orchard roads, including the former Brook View Dairy. Green Acres is the intended funding partner. The Montgomery News reported that about 322 acres would stay open space. About 73 acres were sketched for a possible recreation center, a public works site, sewage plant expansion, a road right-of-way and the existing cemetery. The paper also reported that the transfer needs approval from the State House Commission. Residents supported preservation but questioned the other uses. On September 17 the school district formally asked for the parcel next to the high school stadium. No appraisal, price or state approval had been made public by October 15. The plan’s farm list shows that two “portion” tracts of state land in Skillman have carried a farmland easement since a 1988 law. Which parts of the 395 acres that covers has not been explained publicly.
• Skillman Park maintenance building. The Somerset County Park Commission proposes to convert 1.2 acres of Skillman Park to a park maintenance facility: a 2,730-square-foot building with three garage bays, an office, parking and a bioretention basin. It would sit near the former Maplewood house, east of the Village School, and replace operations now in the old dairy buildings. The county held its hearing on October 13. On October 1 the township reserved 150 gallons a day of sewer capacity for the building. At the October 15 Committee meeting, a member who attended asked the county again for restrooms as a “phase two” item.

What is not known

• Whether any targeted farm owner, including the owners of the Kenvue Lot 15 land, has applied or been approached, and whether the next annual application will update the Lot 15 entry.
• The township’s actual spending to date, given the plan’s conflicting totals.
• The Open Space Trust Fund balance and outstanding open-space debt.
• The Forbes/Rader price and closing, and whether the Dayflower Drive gift has closed.
• The appraisal, price, timing and final uses of the state Corrections lands, and when the State House Commission might take it up.
• What was said at the county’s October 13 Skillman Park hearing.
• The text of the Planning Board’s adoption resolution, which is on file but not posted.

What residents can do

• Comment on Skillman Park by October 27, 2026. Write to the Director, Somerset County Park Commission, 355 Milltown Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807, (908) 722-1200 ext. 5258. Send a copy to NJDEP, Office of Transactions and Public Land Administration, Public Land Compliance Section, Mail Code 401-07, P.O. Box 420, Trenton, NJ 08625-0420. The county may act on or after January 12, 2027.
• Read the plan. The full PDF is linked above. Attachment C lists the targeted farms, and Map #15 shows the project area. Landowners interested in preservation can call the township’s Open Space and Stewardship Director, who invited them to do so at the hearing.
• Watch for the annual application. The township’s next Planning Incentive Grant application, which updates the targeted farm list, is due to the state by December 15. Agricultural Advisory Committee meetings are public.
• Follow the Master Plan reexamination. A draft is expected in early November, with adoption due by March 2027.
• Request records from the Township Clerk under the Open Public Records Act: the adoption resolution, the annual grant application, the Open Space Trust Fund statement, the Forbes/Rader agreement and the county grant agreement, and the Green Acres paperwork for the state lands. Comment at Township Committee meetings, where any purchase must be approved in public.