Barnegat's Cox House Could Benefit From This County Vote

BARNEGAT, NJ — The historic Cox House could benefit from a Nov. 5 vote in Ocean County. A ballot question will allow county residents to decide whether Ocean County's open-space fund can be used for historic preservation.

“It would assist in our efforts to develop further some of our parks like the Barnegat Branch Trail, for example,” Ocean County Freeholder Director Virginia E. Haines said in a statement. “Also it would help in our efforts of historic preservation for such important buildings like the Cox House in Barnegat Township.”

Currently the Natural Lands Trust only allowed the county to acquire and maintain land for the preservation of open space or farmland. Officials have acquired nearly 30,000 acres under the program, which began in 1998. Sixty percent of the county's 408,000 acres have been preserved for open space, including federal, state and county lands.

The proposal would not increase the open-space tax, Haines says. The program's top priority will continue to be acquiring open space in the county.

The ballot question will state the following: "Shall the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust, which was approved and established by referendum in 1997, be expanded to permit use of the Trust Fund not only for open space preservation purposes and farmland preservation purposes, but also allow for the acquisition, development and maintenance for recreational and historic preservation purposes?"

The County acquired the historic Cox House in February 2018. The house, built around 1825, was the first in Barnegat with electricity and running water, according to barnegat.net. Barnegat officials passed an ordinance in 2017 conveying ownership of the house to Ocean County.

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