Pig Farm May Be Coming to Manalapan

Manalapan, NJ - Yes, you read that correctly.

Manalapan has not completely lost its agricultural roots just yet: A local property owner wants to open a pig farm in the Township, MoreMonmouth Musings reported this week.

Developer Joe Spano owns a 123-acre property at the corner of Rt. 33 and Millhurst Road, known locally as Manalapan Crossing. It's currently a farm, where soy beans and corn are harvested, but Spano told MoreMonmouthMusings those crops are not making nearly back the $20 million he says he's invested in the property.

That's why Spano is talking to what he says is one of the nation's largest pork producers to open up a pig farm there. This past Friday, he presented his plans to the Manalapan Zoning Officer and its Board of Health.

There's no telling if the Manalapan Zoning Officer will approve his plans. The Township has reportedly rejected several of Spano's proposals over the years to build homes on the property.

“We are in preliminary discussions,” Spano told MoreMonmouthMusings in a phone interview. “Almost every developer that has looked at the property, and there has been about one hundred, says a residential component is necessary to make a development economically viable. The township does not want homes on the property. So we seem to be stuck with a farm. I need a farm that generates more income than soy beans or corn can provide ... There has been very little new livestock farming in Manalapan or Monmouth County for many years. Some of the rules have changed and many have been forgotten. We’re going to take our time and do this right.”

That property is currently zoned for commercial/retail.

Read the original story here. (Photo credit: www.volganet.ru.)