EAST GREENWICH – In their meeting on Feb. 16, the East Greenwich committee voted on approving the acquisition of the development rights on 20 acres of farmland through the Farmland Presentation Development on Jessup Mill Road.
The farmland preservation program is a program set by the New Jersey State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) The objective of the Farmland preservation is to purchase the development rights of farms so the land can be permanently preserved and restrict the area only to agricultural use. Currently, there are over 300 farms with more than 21,000 in the farmland preservation program in New Jersey.
“We’re very proud of East Greenwich, which has the name green in it,” said East Greenwich Mayor Dale Archer. “And we are consistently working to ensure that we protect some of our farmland here in East Greenwich Township as well as do smart growth in regards to our commercial development.”
The committee voted on and approved accepting the authorization of payment for improvements on Well No.3, which is to install and construct a water filtration system. The construction will be with Clyde N. Lattimer & Son Construction located in Berlin. The amount of the payment for the construction is $240,390.77. Well No.3 is currently located in the Mount Royal area of East Greenwich.
The money paid for the construction is from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). This is coming from the NJDEP grant that totals $6 million. However, there have been issues with the construction as the committee authorized a time extension for improvement on Well No.3.
Mayor Archer said that this was due to a couple of days of supply chain issues that caused the approval of a time extension. Archer stated that the construction on the improvement of Well No.3 should be done before the end of the month.
During the meeting, voting on two approvals involved Democrat Road and Duke Realty, a real estate investment fund (REIT). The first approval that was made was for accepting a performance guarantee and inspection escrow for Duke Realty on Democrat Road. This is for a large commercial development on the road.
The second resolution was for authorizing the acceptance of a soil fill and removal performance for Duke Realty. This would allow Duke Realty to remove dirt and move dirt in and out of the town. Duke Realty would be able to move dirt from one location of Democrat Road to the other side of the road.
The authorization for the execution of an amended settlement agreement between the township and Conifer Realty, a real estate company was approved. This would finalize the final agreement with Conifer Realty to build an affordable housing development in the town.
“We’ve been in litigation for multiple years,” said Archer. “We are finally seeing the light here at the end of the tunnel.”
by Bryant Lopez
One Response
Uh huh. Purchased land for preservation. For how long? Until the Mayor wants to build more warehouses. (The Mayor OWNS and OPERATES a warehouse consultation company). They had no problem chasing some bald eagles, our PROTECTED NATIONAL BIRD, out of their nesting grounds on Democrat Road to build 2 warehouses.
And now the “Duke Realty” deal — more warehouses! All for the sake of the almighty buck, for a certain few!
New Jersey is no longer the Garden State. It is now the Warehouse State. Even in once beautiful East Greenwich!