Farmland

The Christie administration appears resolved to steer large solar farms away from the state's disappearing agricultural land. This week, the Board of Public Utilities approved just three of 57 applications to build grid-supply projects on farmland. Grid-supply systems feed electricity directly from local solar arrays into the regional power infrastructure. The state's solar market is in turmoil, with the price of solar credits dropping dramatically the last two years. Falling prices are blamed mostly on overbuilding of solar systems, stemming from state and federal incentives to developers.

Voters should answer "yes" to the Nov. 3 ballot question that would help enable the state to spend $100 million to preserve farmland. Such a vote is the first, crucial step toward a program to slow the loss of Pennsylvania's farmland, which is disappearing at the alarming rate of 90,000 acres a year. The losses are especially high in areas like the region around Philadelphia where suburban expansion has meant chopping up farms into acre pieces and converting the land from crops to subdivisions or shopping centers.

Amid the elections for control of the governor's office, the Legislature and the freeholder board, Camden County residents also will have a chance to vote next Tuesday on a program to preserve farmland. Voters will be asked whether the county should spend up to $3 million to pay farmers so that they will not sell their land for development. Specifically, the county would buy a development easement on the properties, meaning that farmers would continue to own the land but would give up the right to sell it for the development now sweeping the county's southern end. "The voters of Camden County have an opportunity to indicate their position on preserving dwindling farmland," said Freeholder Director Robert E. Andrews, who proposed to the freeholder board that the question be placed on the November ballot.

A farmland preservation program is one step closer to reality in Lumberton Township. The township's five-member committee unanimously voted Monday night to introduce a bond ordinance appropriating $750,000 to provide for the acquisition of developmental rights to farmland in the 8,500-acre, mostly rural community. A public hearing and final vote is scheduled for Oct. 6. Mayor Donald I. Bryan said the Burlington County Board of Freeholders had earmarked $750,000 for the program, and the township hopes to receive an additional $1.5 million in matching funds from the state to fully fund the $3 million project.

The Burlington County Board of Freeholders has applied for a $200,000 grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to help set up a $25 million program to preserve farmland. The grant application was submitted in April, and the freeholders approved the application earlier this month. A response is expected early next year. Negotiations are under way between the county and Springfield, Mansfield and Chesterfield Townships to protect 30,000 acres of farmland in the municipalities.

Fred Seipt's dream of building a recreational center on his farm in Towamencin took a giant step forward last week as the township's Planning Commission recommended his proposal to the Board of Supervisors. Seipt owns Freddy Hill Farms on Sumneytown Pike. He proposes to build two miniature golf courses, a batting cage and a driving range on his 135-acre farm. The Planning Commission voted, 4-3, Wednesday to recommend preliminary plan approval of his land development application to the Board of Supervisors.

William and Dorothy McDaniel's sprawling farm is nestled off Juliustown Road in pristine Springfield Township. And the McDaniels have made sure that a large chunk of that farm will always remain that way - open and green. As a participant in the New Jersey Farm Preservation Program, the McDaniels, now in their mid-60s, sold the development rights this year for 234 acres of their 300-acre property to the state. The couple get to keep the land, but with the stipulation that it forever remain an open space to be used for farming or light recreation, such as hiking and biking.

The Valley Forge Sewer Authority has received eight proposals to locate, test and obtain state permits for farmers willing to use sludge from the sewage treatment facility as fertilizer. Nearly 1,200 acres of farmland will be needed to dispose of about 12,000 tons of sludge generated annually by the facility, said Joseph Bateman 3d, general manager of the sewage treatment facility in Schuylkill Township. Most of the clay-like substance is now hauled away by AD+SOIL Inc. of Kennett Square, which contracts with the authority to plow the sludge into some of the 2,500 acres of Chester County farmland for which the company holds state sludge disposal permits.

If you want to see what's happening to farmland in Camden County, drive down Sicklerville Road in Winslow Township, Freeholder Director Robert E. Andrews says. Sicklerville Road runs east from the Black Horse Pike to near State Route 73, a stretch spanning more than 10 miles of what was once exclusively an agricultural area. Substantial development has taken place along that route, mostly within the last five years. "Some of that development is good, but we don't want to see that road turn into another Route 70," Andrews said.

On former farmland, the four-year-old, 47-acre Chestnut Pointe rental complex overlooks the original farmhouse, woods, and open fields, a pastoral setting appreciated by some of its residents. "We chose this community because it's actually country living, but close to the stores and everything we need," Susan Tyson said. She and her husband, Fred, both retired and in their mid-60s, moved to Chestnut Pointe about three years ago. "We like the setting, with the woods and farmland.

The Christie administration appears resolved to steer large solar farms away from the state's disappearing agricultural land. This week, the Board of Public Utilities approved just three of 57 applications to build grid-supply projects on farmland. Grid-supply systems feed electricity directly from local solar arrays into the regional power infrastructure. The state's solar market is in turmoil, with the price of solar credits dropping dramatically the last two years. Falling prices are blamed mostly on overbuilding of solar systems, stemming from state and federal incentives to developers.

Patterson Farm, founded in colonial times, has a rich history: The soil is among the most fertile in Bucks County, and patches of pumpkins, fields of corn, and heaps of fresh vegetables have grown there. For decades, Thomas and Alice Patterson owned the 234 acres in Lower Makefield Township and lived in the stone-covered Janney house, one of the property's two homes. The other - the Satterthwaite house, a large home made out of wood painted white - was built in 1760, according to Kaaren Steil, chair of the Lower Makefield Historical Commission.

On Trenton's legislative calendar, amid vying tax cut plans, is a smart bill that would curtail a decades-old property tax scam.   It requires landowners to make at least $1,000 a year from their farmland to get a whopping 98 percent property tax break. The theory is that real farmland produces real income, and raising the threshold from $500 a year to $1,000 a year would weed out what cosponsor Sen. Jen Beck (R., Monmouth) calls "fake farmers. " The bill would return 47,377 acres of farmland to the tax rolls, generating about $2 million.

Has New Jersey made it too easy for homeowners to qualify for a property-tax break meant for farmland?

In a "significant" ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld a rural Bucks County township's plan to preserve farmland and clarified zoning parameters for towns across the state, lawyers said Monday. The 7-0 ruling, issued last week, ends a nine-year battle between Bedminster Township and the Piper Group over a plan to build about 350 single-family houses on 400 acres of farmland. The ruling's broader effect is to provide a blueprint for "how restrictive agricultural preservation zoning can be" and how towns can fix such laws that are ruled too restrictive, John Rice, the lawyer representing Bedminster, said Monday.

HARRISBURG - Affordable farmland and proximity to traditional population centers are driving a boomlet in Amish colonies in New York state, according to a new study. The Amish, many from Ohio or Pennsylvania, have established 10 settlements in New York since the start of 2010, growth that doubles that in any other state. Total population there has grown nearly a third in two years, to 13,000. The first Amish districts in New York were established in the Conewango Valley in 1949, but migration there amounted to a trickle until about a decade ago. As recently as 1991, just 3,900 Amish were in the state.

A bill in the New Jersey Legislature would revise standards for wind-generation facilities and permit commercial-scale wind turbines of any size on preserved farmland. But the bill makes no provision for environmental review, public input, or municipal or State Agricultural Development Committee oversight. It would essentially transfer the powers of community self-determination and home rule to powerful special interests that have no connection to the land or the affected communities.

YORK, Pa. - York County is one of the top counties in the nation in preserving farmland, according to Patty McCandless, director of the York County Agricultural Land Preservation Program. And though a statewide bond issue that helped the county achieve that distinction has expired, McCandless said, she is determined to keep the preservation going by whatever means she can. "Things have just changed," she said. "We're testing the waters. " McCandless' program provides money to farmers in exchange for their agreeing to maintain the land for agriculture in perpetuity.

There is a scramble for farmland globally, and it turns out it is not just to grow food. Investors are discovering returns on farming land that rival those of the U.S. stock market. Some Wall Street luminaries have long been fans of farmland as part of an investment portfolio. Why? The Standard & Poor's 500-benchmark index's average annual return was 11.8 percent between 1950-2008, while the return on farmland with capital appreciation and current yield was 11.6 percent. "But the volatility of the S&P is about double that of farmland," notes Shonda Warner, manager of Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners L.L.C.

UPPER FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - New Jersey is spending nearly $28 million to preserve 1,900 acres as open space in Burlington, Mercer, and Monmouth Counties, state officials said. The state Department of Environmental Protection announced a deal Monday with the Flemer family, which until recently operated the land as Princeton Nurseries. Based in Upper Freehold Township, it was once one of the nation's largest commercial nurseries. "This is the largest single preservation agreement for the state this year . . .," said state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin.