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Frankford Township
Awarded $40,000 State Grant to Help Develop TDR Plan
(NJ Department of Agriculture
News Release) |
The State Transfer of Development Rights Bank Board has awarded
Frankford Township, Sussex County, a $40,000 matching grant to help
it conduct the planning necessary to implement a successful transfer
of development rights (TDR) program, Agriculture Secretary Charles
M. Kuperus announced today.
“This grant will assist Frankford Township in completing
the planning process to develop a TDR program that protects its
important farmland and open space,” said Agriculture Secretary
Charles M. Kuperus, who chairs the State TDR Bank Board. “We
support Frankford Township officials in undertaking this planning
effort and fostering the ongoing public dialogue that is so critical
to ensuring a successful TDR program and retaining the rural character
of the township.”
“This program will protect important farmlands and the quality
of life in Frankford Township,” added Department of Community
Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin. “Frankford Township
is taking advantage of this powerful tool and investing in their
future, changing the way development occurs in their community by
preserving open space and focusing development in the right places.”
“Frankford Township has beautiful vistas and undeveloped
areas that contain wetlands, streams, woodlands and farms,”
said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa P.
Jackson. “By supporting growth in the town center –
away from the open areas – we can protect water quality and
wildlife and preserve the town’s rural character.”
Frankford Township received a $20,000 check that represents the
first installment in the planning assistance grant. It will be eligible
for the remaining $20,000 once it has developed a TDR ordinance
and submitted it to the State Planning Commission.
Before a TDR ordinance is adopted, a municipality is required to
conduct a number of planning activities. These include preparation
of a development transfer plan element of its municipal master plan
that identifies sending and receiving areas, analyzes anticipated
population and economic growth, and establishes the planning objectives
and design standards that will be used to review applications for
development in the receiving area. Other required planning activities
include preparation of a utility service plan element, a real estate
analysis and a capital improvement program to ensure the receiving
area will have the capacity to accommodate the increased growth.
Grant funds may be used to pay for up to 50 percent of the costs
of these planning activities.
Frankford Township is working to preserve farmland and open space
in the township by implementing a TDR program that will concentrate
growth within Frankford Center, located at Ross’s Corner adjacent
to Skylands Stadium and the state fairgrounds. The township has
more than 10,000 acres of farmland-assessed lands.
TDR programs are designed to encourage a shift in growth away from
a municipality’s critical agricultural, environmentally sensitive
or historic lands (sending areas) to areas that can accommodate
the growth more readily (receiving areas). Landowners in sending
areas are able to sell their development rights – or development
credits – to developers who can use them to build elsewhere
in a designated growth area (receiving area) at a higher density
than normally allowed in a town’s zoning ordinance. Once TDR
credits are sold from a sending area property, that property is
permanently preserved.
The New Jersey State TDR Bank provides financial and other assistance
to landowners and municipalities that enact TDR ordinances. The
bank is housed within the N.J. State Agriculture Development Committee,
which administers the state Farmland Preservation Program.
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