Just as 2008 was coming to a close, Plainsboro officials were closing on something else — the 84-acre Bulk Farm on Cranbury Neck Road.
During the Township Committee’s year-end meeting on December 30, just as Mayor Peter Cantu mentioned that the township was closing on the purchase of the farm, Township Attorney Mike Herbert’s cell phone rang with news that the deal had gone through.
“This has been something that’s been on my priority list for a long, long time,” said Cantu.
Last February, the Township Committee approved an agreement with the Bulk Family Limited Partnership, which was needed in order for the township to jointly purchase the property with the county for a price tag of $3 million.
Cantu had pointed to the farm’s acquisition as one of the goals for 2008 during last January’s reorganization speech. The parcel is one of the last remaining large tracts of open space within township borders.
The county’s dedication of $2.695 million toward the property is coming from an open space referendum, which set aside money for acquisitions such as this. In Plainsboro, the remaining $305,”000 is coming from the township’s own open space fund.
Cantu explained during the December 30 meeting that the property will now be put up for lease for farming uses. The Bulk Farm is the second to last property on the list of properties in the township’s open space master plan, Cantu said. The single remaining property is the 2.5-acre Schmidt Property on Plainsboro Road adjacent to the Princeton Meadows golf course. The county is working on acquiring that parcel.
Cantu said he was also pleased that in a few years, 32 acres of park land will also be added to the township, with the development of a park area at the University Medical Center at Princeton’s new hospital location off Route 1.
