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 proposed that Somerset County acquire land in order to bring the existing County parkland acreage up to the new mark of 20,500 acres. The goal was 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.
Overview
In May 2022, the County adopted the Somerset County Preservation Plan, which is believed to be the first of its kind in New Jersey and possibly the United States. The Plan combines into one, the updated Parks, Recreation, & Open Space Master Plan (2000), an updated Comprehensive Farmland Preservation Plan (2008), and a new Historic Preservation Plan, all of which provide land use, funding, and partnership strategies for preservation in Somerset County. The Plan links the three programs, and incorporates climate change mitigation, economic development, and tourism strategies. The Open Space Preservation Plan reinforces the five goals of the 2000 Parks Recreation and Open Space Master Plan and adds three additional goals: leverage the Somerset County Preservation Trust; preserve County-owned historic sites; cultivate partnerships. With these added goals and added focus on environmental issues in the Open Space Preservation Plan, the acreage goal has been increased to 24,000 acres.
Please see the link below for the Somerset County Preservation Plan.
https://www.somersetcountynj.gov/government/public-works/planning/current-projects
E-mail the Principal Planner-Preservation, Land Acquisition with any questions or comments.