2. LAND USE

Colts Neck Township covers 20,355 acres of which 5150 acres (25.3%) are included in the Naval Weapons Station Earle. The New Jersey-American Water Company owns 1010 acres (5.0%), including the Swimming River Reservoir.

During April and May, 1977, a lot-by-lot survey was conducted throughout the Township to record the current use of property. This survey was updated in 1979 by the use of building permit data and in 1981 by a survey of new subdivisions. Tax maps were used to delineate publicly owned property and the tax assessor's records were utilized to plot properties under Farmland Assessment. The results of this survey are shown on Table 1, Existing Land Use.

The residential usage was comprised of 2,008 single-family residences on about 2,725 acres. This represents over 13% of the Township's land area and averages about 1.4 acres per dwelling unit. Of the total number of dwelling units, 604 (30%) have been erected since the October, 1969 survey. The basic residential pattern falls into three categories:

1. The older, isolated farmhouses;

2. Single-family homes along highway frontage;

3. New subdivisions with interior street systems.

Of these 604 residences, only 63 (10%) have been located on lots requiring driveway access to the major road network. The remaining 90% have been part of major subdivisions with access to interior, local street systems. In addition, the recent subdivision activity has been of a cluster design resulting in open spaces, mostly "green ways", serving as aesthetic dividers between residential neighborhoods.

The commercial activities continue in a strip along Route 34 north and south of its intersection with Route 537. North of Route 537, the commercial uses are emerging in a shopping center design with shared off-street parking and controlled access to Route 34. South of Route 537, the commercial uses on Route 34 are more of a strip commercial pattern.

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Table 1

EXISTING LAND USE

AS OF JANUARY 1981

*Farmland Assessment Records, 1980 showed 7,821 acres or 38% devoted to agricultural and horticultural use with another 665 acres (3%) devoted to the farmhouse, woodland not devoted to agriculture, and other uses not devoted to agriculture.

A map of land use is shown in Map II.

In the Village of Colts Neck, commercial uses are limited to the general store, honey shop, real estate office, animal hospital, and the Colts Neck Inn. East of Route 34, on Route 537, there is a farm market and an antique store. One other small concentration of commercial uses is on Route 34 at the intersection of Laird Road where there are two realtors, three farm markets, a service station, and a pet feed store. Other scattered uses include a bar at the intersection of Muhlenbrink Road and Route 537, and the Colts Neck Airport south of the Village of Colts Neck.

Commercial uses occupy only 90 acres, or less than 1% of the Township. There are several observations regarding the commercial pattern:

1. The uses are predominately highway oriented with several specialty shops and services. The pattern is scattered along Route 34, and for the most part, is not concentrated for convenient pedestrian access and is limited to some daily and speciality needs. Major shopping services must be obtained in regional centers elsewhere.

2. Since 1969 the new uses include a bank, hardware store, and Racquet Club; the small group of buildings northeast of the village which include a grocer, liquor, restaurant, paint store, cleaner and pool office; and the Colts Neck Shopping Center which expanded the hardware store site and added 2 offices, a new post office, and 10 retail outlets.

3. Commercial services are an intensive land use and do not require extensive land areas to adequately serve the population.

There are only two industrial sites in the township; Laird's Distillers, occupying about 20 acres at the intersection of Laird Road and Route 537 in Scobeyville, and a tool and die shop on Crine Road opposite the south end of Hillside Road. The Laird distillery of Apple Jack Brandy fame has been operating at its site since 1780 and also gives its name to Laird Road. Essentially, Colts Neck has no industrial base as a result of its limited highway access, the Township's low population, and a long standing policy of not seeking industry. This latter policy is supported by a lack of industrial zoning.

The Jersey Central Power and Light Company has two facilities in the Township [Private communication between Marshall M. Bazar, Jersey Central Power & Light Co., Morristown, NJ and Dr. John R. Vig, Colts Neck Environmental Commission, December 1989]; "Colts Neck Station", a transformer station on Route 34, and "Atlantic Substation", a substation with eight 230 kV power lines, on Asbury Avenue in the southeast portion of the Township. (The power lines on high towers that are visible at certain places, e.g., at the intersection of Rts. 34 and 537, are 230 kV lines.) The 230 kV is transformed to 34 kV at the Atlantic Substation. The 34 kV is transformed to 12 kV at the Colts Neck Station and is so distributed throughout the Township. The 12 kV is transformed to the 120V/240V used in households at transformers on poles (or at in-ground transformers in the newer developments).

Public and quasi-public uses together with open space uses occupy about 7,505 acres or 37% of the Township. About 150 acres (1%) represent churches, schools, municipal buildings, fire house, post office, library, and cemetery. An additional 805 acres (4%) are open spaces such as the "green ways" resulting from cluster zoning designs, "Green Acres" purchased with state financial aid, and the county's Hominy Hill Golf Course. The three dominant public uses which occupy another 32% of the Township are the Naval Weapons Station Earle facilities along the Township's southern border (5,150 acres = 25%), the Swimming River Reservoir in the northeast portion of the Township (1,010 acres = 5%), and the right-of-way of the Route 18 Freeway (390 acres = 2%).

Since October 1969, the major additions to the public, quasi-public and open space uses have been the Township garage, the office and treatment facility of the Monmouth Consolidated Water Company, St. Mary's Church at the intersection of Phalanx Road and Route 34, the baseball field on Laird Road north of Phalanx Road on property owned by the school board, the county's acquisition of Hominy Hill Golf Course, the "Green Acres" site on Bucks Mill Road, and the "Green Ways" generated by cluster zoning.

In addition to Route 18, streets occupy about 720 acres (4%) of the Township. While an emerging system of interior, local streets is taking place within major subdivisions, the dominant street system is still the rambling network of country roads. These roads will continue to assume greater importance as overall growth within the region takes place. The pattern of subdivisions with interior street system is likely to continue.

In this way, strip frontage lots along major arteries are minimized and individual driveways are designed to intersect the interior, local streets, not the major arteries.

Because so much of the Township is used agriculturally, properties listed under the Farmland Assessment Act were recorded on the Land Use Map. In 1980, about 8,486 acres (42%) of the Township were qualified under the Farmland Assessment Act consisting of "3b" properties, 7,821 acres, plus acreage for the farm house, woodland and other land not devoted to agricultural use, 665 acres. (Calculations from the Land Use Map in 1981 resulted in an estimated 8,364 farmland acres, or 41%. This is a minor discrepancy. With 271 line items representing 7,821 acres of qualified farmland, the average tract size was slightly less than 30 acres. As shown later, the average horse farm was larger, at 54 acres, in 1979.)

The ability of the Township to support agriculture is also indicated by the fact that 38% of the Township has Class I and II agricultural soils with another 25% being Class III soils.

As of 1980, 60 percent of the Township's agricultural land (3b) was devoted to harvested cropland. An additional 17% was permanent pasture, 13% was woodland, and 10% was cropland that was pastured. Although not recorded in these 1980 figures, a major agricultural use that has existed for years, and which has enjoyed significant recent growth, is horse breeding and training, including training tracks.

In 1970, there was an estimated horse population in Colts Neck of 649 - 812 horses. (The range is necessary due to the constant shipping and receiving of horses for racing, training, and breeding purposes.) A survey conducted in 1979 showed the number of horses had increased to 1,283 - 1,537; an increase of 76 - 91 percent. This was an average of 11 - 13 more horses per farm or about 1 - 1.5 horses added to each farm per year.

Thorobreds dominated the horse industry at 58% of the horse population in 1979. Standardbreds were increasing, but were still at 29% of the population. Horses for pleasure, show, 4H projects, etc. represented the remaining 13%.

Other trends were available from the survey. For example, 33% of the horse farms were not limited to the small family operation, but had employees, and 41% of the horse farms increased the number of horses from 1970 to 1979. In addition, 41% of the farm owners had either acquired more land, moved to larger farms, or were looking for more land at the time of the survey. Another implication of the horse racing industry in Colts Neck was that one-quarter of the farms had tracks. However, this tended to be a fa cility available only on the larger farms. And finally, the viability of horse farming is indicated by the fact that over two-thirds of the farms had made major capital investments in the last three or four years including barns, paddocks, electrical systems, watering systems, wells, silos, indoor rings and arenas, roadways, horse pool, roofing and heating systems. While the following chart breaks down the farm sizes and horse population, it should be pointed out that many of the larger farms also raise crops in addition to breeding and training horses.

Table II - Horse Farms

The existing land use pattern is dominated by agriculture and public land (combined they represent 78% of the Township). Agriculture represents 41% of the entire Township, but when the public and quasi-public uses are deleted, agricultural uses occupy two-thirds of the remaining land in the Township. Much of the agricultural land can reasonably be expected to continue in that capacity because of the growing horse industry. However, of that land which is developed, the dominant use is residential (only 13% of the Township's land area, but 2,008 residences). The emergence of residential subdivisions has resulted in large residential neighborhoods in some areas of the Township. It is likely that some of the peripheral areas around these subdivisions will also be developed.

In October 1982, Monmouth County published its Growth Management Guide. County officials expect this Guide "to become an invaluable aid for municipal planning of residential and business growth from now into the next century." The Guide specifies two agriculture/conservation areas where it recommends only limited residential and light industrial growth. Colts Neck Township lies wholly within one of these two areas.