Could We Be Next?

Freeholders approve the purchase of land

By CAROL COMEGNO • Courier-Post Staff • February 7, 2009

A farm in the military buffer zone around two bases in Burlington County has been preserved.

The county board of freeholders approved spending $220,875 the last week in January to ban development by purchasing a preservation easement on the 20-acre William Miller Farm on Hockamick Road near Cookstown in New Hanover.

"Our farmland program has been effective in preserving land in the buffer zone, which has contributed to saving the bases from closure by reducing conflicting land uses," said Freeholder William Haines Jr.

Close to McGuire Air Force Base, the preservation is eligible for a U.S. Department of Defense grant toward the purchase.

Haines said those funds will offset New Hanover's required 20 percent share of the easement cost. The county mainly uses state grants and revenue from a dedicated county property tax trust fund to preserve land by either purchasing the land or acquiring easements.

Mary Pat Robbie, director of the county department of resource conservation, said the county has preserved 68 farms totaling 6,676 acres in a two-mile wide buffer zone around McGuire and the Army post at Fort Dix.

The military favors buffer zones for its operations, such as airplane takeoffs and landings and weapons firing, which can sometimes affect neighbors.

The county received $1 million in federal money in 2008 to help preserve several farms totaling 800 acres in the most critical areas of the zone.

The Miller farm, now used for vegetable production, will remain in agriculture.

Reach Carol Comegno at (609) 267-9486 or ccomegno@courierpostonline.com