Open Space Program

Overview

In 1994, the Somerset County Park Commission and County Planning Board realized that the County was poised at the beginning of a new era. With the enactment of the County's dedicated Open Space Trust Fund, the County began to plan for the future accordingly. These plans, which were formalized in the 1994 Somerset County Parks Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan, remain as a valid foundation. Much progress has been made since then in attaining the high standards sought for the County parks and, due to aggressive preservation efforts, the County has exceeded its original open space goal of 10,500 acres. Again, the time had come to reassess and update the County's original goals.

County residents have a long history of supporting open space, farmland, and historic preservation. This is reaffirmed by the increase in the County's open space tax rate, the proliferation of municipal open space trust funds, the public's emphasis on growth management, and the Freeholders' decision to partner with the private sector in the creation of a ballpark. County residents have recognized the importance of the County Park Commission in sustaining the quality of life.

Somerset County has been identified as one of the most desirable places in New Jersey and in the country to live, to work, and to locate a business. The resulting development pressures and suburban land conversion present a constant challenge to Somerset County and its land preservation efforts. Although the State has established the goal of acquiring one million acres of open space and municipalities have decided to lower residential densities to reduce traffic and control school costs, developers are steadily trying to acquire buildable land to assure an adequate future land inventory. Many of the tracts of land targeted by developers are the very same tracts of land that the County would like to acquire. Opportunities for open space acquisition on the scale of a County park are diminishing. The result is that the race for Somerset County's open space has increased its pace since 1994.

The 2000 Parks Recreation and Open Space Master Plan Update proposes that Somerset County acquire land in order to bring the existing County parkland acreage up to the new mark of 20,500 acres. This new County parkland goal will be achieved by land acquisitions or easement purchases involving five initiatives: expansion of existing county parks; greenways along the County's major rivers and Second Watchung ridgeline; the Sourland Mountain; the Millstone River Valley; and new County parks in northern and southern Somerset County.

The map entitled Somerset County Parks Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan, presents Somerset County's overall concept of open space and parkland. The map shows, as a base, existing public parks and open space and private land currently in outdoor recreation use or permanently preserved for open space, such as preserved agricultural lands.

E-mail Principal Planner, Land Acquisition with any questions or comments.