But an Inquirer examination has found that four of the six projects in Old York Village are going forward after developers made $3.1 million in preservation payments to farmers who are members of the Planning Board and who voted on the projects.
The biggest beneficiary: Lawrence Durr, a township committeeman and Planning Board member who used his position to ease the way for a developer with whom he had a contract to preserve farmland. The developer ultimately paid Durr $2.37 million.
In recent months, controversy over Durr's land deals has led the township to repeal one ordinance and redo a hearing on a developer's subdivision application.
"It's kind of this incestuous circle . . . there's a lot of conflict of interest," said Jeff Baron, an attorney representing two residents who recently sued to halt the program.
"It's just a situation where the residents, their interests, aren't being put first," he said.
State ethics law bars local officials from engaging in "any business, transaction, or professional activity which is in substantial conflict with the proper discharge of his duties in the public interest."
Durr maintains that his farm-preservation payments from developers - including another for $116,500 in 2003 - did not affect his judgment in voting on matters regarding those developers.
"If you're going to serve your community, which is what I feel I have done for the last 18 years, you can't be precluded from participating in what's allowed in the town," he said.
Durr, a retired farmer in this community of 7,000, spoke passionately about the program's achievements on a drive through Chesterfield. Old York Village is now one-third built, more than 2,200 acres of farmland have been preserved, and the township just broke ground on the village school.
