Toms River Voters Again Reject Open Space Tax

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River voters have again rejected the township's request for permission to increase the open space tax, an increase township officials say is needed to allow the town to protect more land from development.

The request sought to increase the town's open space tax on property by 1 penny, to 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. There were 14,959 no votes and 11,662 yes votes, according to unofficial tallies posted by the Ocean County Board of Elections.

The results are unofficial until certified by the Ocean County Clerk.

Fighting overdevelopment has been the rallying cry in Toms River for several years, and was a focal point of the campaign for the 2021 election.

Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill had urged voters to support the open space tax so the township could buy more undeveloped land, particularly as the township faces another round of affordable housing demands from the state Council on Affordable Housing.

A 2016 settlement with the Council on Affordable Housing required Toms River to provide 1,285 units of affordable housing by 2025. Another round of mandates are expected; those mandates are based on undeveloped land that is not otherwise protected from development.

"We're doing what we can with the money we have to preserve open space," Hill said in late September when the Township Council approved the town's purchase of the Boy Scout property next to Camp Albocondo on Ridgeway Road.

"If the people are serious about wanting to prevent further development, we need the tools to purchase this land," Hill said.

Voters previously rejected a request to increase the tax in 2018. That request would have raised the tax from 1.5 cents to 3 cents, but 60.35 percent of the voters said no, with the question failing 17,455 to 11,466.

Toms River's Open Space Trust Fund was first established in 2001. The funds can only be used to buy property for conservation, farmland preservation, recreation and open space.

Property owners in Toms River currently pay $15 per $100,000 of assessed value in their property taxes yearly to support the open space trust fund.

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