Kingwood 2114

What will Kingwood township look like in 100 years? Will the rural way of life still be here? Or will Kingwood be just another sprawling suburban community with subdivisions, roads, traffic and stoplights every half mile?  It's no secret that Hunterdon County is growing. Just look at Raritan Township. When I first lived in Raritan Township in 2002, I could bicycle over much of the township. In ten short years many of the roads are too busy with cars and traffic to ride. Route 31 is congested most of the day, as is Route 202.  There are not only more people living here, people are driving more miles. Big box stores like Walmart have moved in and more will surely come.  Two of the three traffic circles are already past their usefulness.

But what is the real threat to rural living? The true threat is more development, the sell off of large tracts of lands and farms and build out of more homes.  It is the large farms that maintain this area's rural character and low population density.  There are many horse farms in Hunterdon, hay farms, farms growing corn and beans. There is even Leon's sod farm. Agriculture is big part of the way of life here. But what is the future of agriculture in New Jersey, with a changing climate and uncertain economy? Farms cannot operate indefinitely at a loss, extremes of weather such as drought or flooding, hotter summers may push local farms into oblivion.  Small farms have disappeared throughout much of New Jersey. I grew up near Montvale, which at one time had farmland. Now it has corporate headquarters.

Part of what can prevent the growth and sprawl is our leaders. It is critical that township and county leaders take action to maintain the rural character of Hunterdon.  Strong support for land conservation, green acres and farmland preservation will ensure that Hunterdon does not have runaway growth.  Runaway development is often driven by money and greed. I saw it firsthand in San Diego, where in the space of 10 years, thousands of acres of wild land were bulldozed. In Hunterdon a development of 20 houses is a big deal, in San Diego developments could be 3,000 homes!  The local governments were taken over by real estate developers and planners. They had huge war chests of money for their political campaigns and lawyers to fight off environmental impact studies. In some cases coastal sage habitat was bulldozed in the middle of the night, before anyone could claim there were endangered species there.  It was a corrupt process in that the local leaders owned a piece of the real estate action, made themselves and their partners wealthy but ruined the long-term quality of life in the area.

The key to Hunterdon's future is the survival of the farms and farmland. So buy locally grown produce, beef, eggs, dairy and poultry if you can. Have your kids take lessons at a horse farm, or board your horse. Tell your friends to buy hay in Hunterdon. Tell local leaders to hold the line on property taxes so farmers can afford to keep farming. Pay attention to issues that matter to farmers, because if the farms stop operating, they will be sold off, broken up into smaller lots and built out.

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