Planner sees no reason to change acre

BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Township Planner Richard Cramer told the Township Committee at its last meeting that as a planner, he can see no legal justification for amending an ordinance that deals with the definition of an acre.

Cramer's assessment of a proposed change was in keeping with the opinion expressed by Township Attorney James Kinneally, who had previously spoken against any change in the ordinance.

Kinneally did mention at the July 12 meeting that Don Holland, who spearheads Manalapan's farmland preservation efforts and is also a member of the Planning Board, is a proponent of reducing the total number of square feet that defines an acre in order for the measure to serve as a farmland preservation incentive.

The reduction of the required square footage as proposed would only have applied to farmland assessed properties.

Kinneally previously said he would not want to defend a municipality that made the type of change that was being discussed.

Cramer told the committee members at their July 12 meeting that speaking from a planner's perspective he, too, could find no land use justification for allowing farmland a special assessment for an acre.

"Every way the word acre is used in your ordinances it is defined in the same way," he said.

Discussion of the development of an amendment to the ordinance began in May. At issue was whether to redefine the number of square feet that define an acre.

According to Cramer, at present, Manalapan's official measure of an acre is 43,560 square feet.

Officials have discussed the possibility of redefining as acre as 40,000 square feet, a so-called "builder's acre."

Committeemen Joseph Locricchio and Andrew Lucas have said the change in the size of an acre would only benefit developers who now control property that would see a higher density of homes permitted.

Mayor Drew Shapiro has said the move is an attempt to follow through on a promise made to Manalapan's farmers in 2002 by former Committeewoman Rebecca Aaronson.

Cramer has explained that the proposed changes would only affect the Residential-Agricultural (RA) zone and the RA-4 zone (one house per 4 acres). He has also said the change could impact Manalapan's obligation to provide affordable housing as defined by the state Council on Affordable Housing.