September 14, 2004		2004-R-0727
NEW JERSEY'S GARDEN STATE PRESERVATION TRUST ACT
By: Paul Frisman, Associate Analyst

You asked for a summary of New Jersey’s Open Space program, starting with the recent statewide referendum.

SUMMARY

In 1998, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman set a state goal of adding one million acres of open space to the 854,000 acres the state had preserved up to that time.

In 1999, she signed into law the Garden State Preservation Trust Act, implementing a 1998 statewide referendum, in which voters approved, by a 2-1 margin, a ballot initiative to provide a stable source of funding for open space preservation.

The act (N. J. Stat. Ann. § 13: 8C-1 et seq. ):

• dedicates $ 98 million a year for 10 years (1999 to 2009) from state sales tax revenue to preserve open space, and authorizes the issuance of up to $ 1 billion in revenue bonds;

• sets a $ 200 million combined annual limit for open space and farmland preservation, divided according to a specific formula among the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), which acquires open space and parkland; the state agriculture department’s State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC), which runs the Farmland Preservation program; and the New Jersey Historic Trust, which preserves historic properties;

• creates a nine-member board, the Garden State Preservation Trust (Trust), to make funding recommendations to the governor and legislature; and

• continues the payment of PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) funds to New Jersey towns in which lands are purchased under the state’s “Green Acres” program for conservation and recreation purposes.

The act has the potential to add more than $ 1. 9 billion to the more than $ 1. 3 billion for open space preservation that New Jersey voters have approved in nine bond issues since 1981.

On Nov. 4, 2003, New Jersey voters approved an amendment to increase the maximum bonding capacity under the act by an additional $ 150 million (from $ 1 billion to $ 1. 15 billion). The increased bonding is earmarked for acquisition of open space in the state’s “Highlands” area and for creating and improving 200 local parks.

DISTRIBUTION OF OPEN SPACE FUNDING UNDER THE ACT

Each year the Trust, after retaining enough money to pay debt service on bonds, must allocate $ 6 million to the Historic Preservation Trust. It then must distribute 60% of the remaining proceeds to NJDEP’s Green Acres open space preservation program, and 40% to the agriculture department’s Farmland Preservation program.

The Trust, whose members include the state treasurer, NJDEP commissioner and agriculture secretary, reviews and approves projects submitted by NJDEP, SADC and the Historic Preservation Trust twice annually. The trust can remove projects from the list of those submitted, but cannot add any. The trust sends its approved list to the governor and legislature in the form of appropriation bills.

According to the 2003-2007 New Jersey State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), the Trust approved $ 554. 4 million for state, local, and nonprofit open space preservation and park and recreation projects between June 1999 and June 2002. The money came from the act, the Green Acres bond acts, Green Acres loan repayments, and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Table I indicates how the $ 554. 4 million was allocated.

Table I: Funding Approved for Open Space Projects,

June 1999 to June 2002

Project Type	Funding
State Land Acquisition	$ 236,000,000
Local Government Acquisition	$ 221,600,000
Local Government Park Development	$ 46,700,000
Nonprofit Acquisition and Park Development	$ 49,200,000
Coastal Blue Acres Acquisitions	$ 992,000

Green Acres Program and Funding

NJDEP’s Green Acres program, begun in 1961, preserves land and develops parks by buying land directly from property owners and providing grants and loans to towns, counties, and nonprofit land trusts.

One-half of the funds the act appropriates to the Green Acres program is allocated for open space acquisition and park development; 40% for grants and loans to local governments for preservation and recreational development; and 10% for matching grants to nonprofit organizations for land acquisition and recreational development.

According to the Green Acres web site, the Trust makes approximately $ 115 million available to the Green Acres program each year. According to the above formula, this means that each year about $ 57 million is used for direct state purchases, $ 46 million for grants and loans to towns and counties, and $ 11. 5 million for matching grants to nonprofit land trusts.

The terms of funding available to the towns depends on the type of acquisition project, whether the municipality is urban, and whether the town has an open space tax. According to NJDEP, 179 New Jersey towns and 19 of its counties have an open space tax, typically a tax of from 0. 5

Towns with an open space tax are eligible for a 50% matching grant, subject to a cap; urban aid municipalities qualify for a 75% grant, with the possibility of receiving the balance as a loan at 2% interest, payable over 30 years. The cap for urban areas is higher than that for non-urban areas.

Towns without an open space tax can apply for a 25% grant and a portion of the balance as a loan, also at 2% over 30 years. More information on the Green Acres financing options can be found on the web page, above.

Open space obtained with the assistance of the Green Acres program must be used for outdoor conservation and recreation purposes. It must be open to the public, except to protect public safety or a specific natural or cultural resource, or to conduct routine maintenance. Program approval is needed to close park land for more than one month. A town may establish entrance fees, but it may charge a fee to non-residents only if it charges residents, and then may only charge non-residents up to twice the fee charged residents.

According to the SCORP, New Jersey had set aside 1,082,625 acres for public conservation and recreation purposes as of January 1, 2002, not including preserved farmland. The state itself administered 679,646 acres, or 63% of this amount. Nonprofit organizations oversaw 93,848 acres; the federal government 109,672 acres, and county and municipal parks accounted for 197,000 acres. The remaining 2,452 acres comprised regional or interstate lands.

Farmland Preservation

According to the agriculture department’s 2003 Annual Report, New Jersey had preserved 1,051 farms totaling 119,909 acres, or 14% of its agricultural land. The state preserved a record 20,000 acres in 2003.

According to The Trust for Public Land (TPL), the Farmland Preservation program was funded in 2000 at $ 80 million, more than five times the program’s previous annual funding. Of that amount, TPL states, $ 49 million was spent on traditional easement purchases, $ 22 million on fee simple purchases and the remaining $ 9 million on three other programs.

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