Correction

Yesterday, I posted about Vernon Hill's Villa Collina estate on Main Street. Hill was included in a well circulated story on NJ's wealthy "fake" farmers and their eye-popping property tax breaks. However, the post was incorrect and I took it down.

Hill's property is not assessed as farmland. According to the Planning Board's 12/09 "Open Space and Recreation Plan Element," (PDF) 27 acres of Hill's property "outside of the sanitary sewer service area adjacent to South Valley Elementary School has been deed restricted for conservation purposes." [IV-8]

The plan element describes conservation easements:

The dedication of easements is a technique sometimes used by the Township in preserving wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. While retaining ownership in private hands, conservation easements effectively protect lands of ecological importance. Donation of an easement and donation of development rights have similar tax advantages. [IV-20]

Quibble with the technique, fume over tax breaks for the super rich, but the township does get a benefit: conservation through development restrictions. That's the way it works.