By Stephen Appezzato
MIDDLETOWN – For most Middletown residents, preserving open space is a priority. That was evident from November’s ballot referendum: Two-thirds of voters supported raising the annual collection rate of the Open Space, Recreation, Floodplain Protections, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
Months after the election, the township committee followed through at its Jan. 21 meeting, increasing the collection rate from 3 cents to 4 cents per $100 in equalized property valuation.
“Two-thirds of the voters of Middletown, voters that span political ideologies, voted in favor of this referendum for the second time in four years,” Mayor Tony Perry said. It “says a lot” that in New Jersey, the state with the highest property taxes, voters overwhelmingly supported increases in their taxes again for open space, he noted.
Middletown’s Open Space Trust was formed in 1998. Originally, the trust levied 1 cent per $100 in equalized property value. Just four years later, in 2002, voters supported doubling the rate to 2 cents. In the 2020 general election, more than two-thirds of voters favored increasing the levy to 3 cents.
According to the township, since the trust was formed, Middletown has acquired and preserved 275 acres of land, with a total investment of more than $30 million.
Since 2020, the township has placed “an emphasis” that would top any other municipality in the state when it comes to prioritizing and preserving open space, Perry said.
In 2024 alone, Middletown put roughly $568,000 toward park improvements, such as the authorization of restorations of the Murray Farmhouse, a historic homestead from the 1770s located in Poricy Park. Currently, there are 80 parks in town, totaling about 6,000 acres of preserved space.
“I think it speaks overwhelmingly at the fact that not only has our priority – the priorities that we’ve placed on preserving open space – resonated with our town, but we’ve been able to demonstrate it with the improvements that we’ve made at some of our parks, with the continued improvements that we’ve just recently announced,” Perry said. Last year, community members celebrated the restoration of the Conover Beacon, a small lighthouse located in Leonardo originally built in 1856 and later reconstructed in 1941, as well as the preservation of the 67-acre Tretter property and 17 acres along the Navesink River, adjacent to River Plaza Elementary School. In 2023, the township also purchased four parcels around Red Hill, West Nut Swamp, Nut Swamp and Dwight roads.
“We’re 42 square miles, we’re 68,000 people, and we want to be able to maintain and preserve all of the open space and undeveloped land that we have left in this town,” Perry said.
According to the ordinance, the 1-cent Open Space Trust levy increase took effect immediately.
The article originally appeared in the January 30 – February 5, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
