in our Spotlight on Business Report the four-year battle between a warehouse developer and a ryal town is over for the first time New Jersey leaders are using State money to purchase a large chunk of Farmland in Warren County that was slated for nearly 3 million square feet of warehouse space and it may not be the last as Ted Goldberg reports the preservation of this Farmland could serve as a model for other areas hoping to save off Warehouse sprawl people in White Township used to call this land the jandal property with more than a little disgust now it's being called the Buckhorn Creek Farm with smiles and tears I'm still emotional about it because it's a great great uh it's a great win for us it's a great win for Warren County the state Agricultural Development Committee bought nearly 600 acers to preserve this as Farmland paying around $27 million as far as checks that this group has written and that you've signed how does this compare this is a big one executive director Susan Payne says she reached out to jandel the Pennsylvania based developer last summer to see if they would be interested in selling jandal planned on building a large Warehouse which led to locals here mobilizing against them when we appraised this property um Warehouse development was still very hot and um and the zoning would have allowed for over 2 million square F feet so that that's worth a lot in a um in this market jandal will make a decent profit after buying this land for $11 million in 2019 Payne says they were eager to close on Thursday morning 6 months after agreeing to a sale they removed uh a dilapidated house that we didn't want to buy because that would have been a liability and they took it down and disposed of it um they they sealed up um you know an old septic tank each one of these little rows is where there was a piece of seed planted even after jandal bought this land 5 years ago it was still used for farming Dave clap also works for the state agriculture development committee and says now that the land has been sold he's got a lot to do working with the farmer to make sure that they're um they're using practices that can serve the soil that make sure um you know when they're doing their planting and they tilling um that the soil isn't running off for clap preserving Farmland is important as many Garden State communities consider converting their Farmland into space for warehouses I have young kids um it's really important for food for climate security um you know for making sure that this um you know this land is always available to produce food for our communi it's a tremendous amount of money for one piece of land but it's worth it because we do not want New Jersey to become one big Suburban track development of uh houses on track housing and shopping centers leaders who spoke at today's closing also praise the people who initially spoke out against the warehouse plants and kept on speaking for 5 years we kept the fire on the on the issue um we kept the we brought it to the politicians attention we attended County meetings I'm going to miss seeing the orange shirts in our in our commissioner meetings but um you know your your work and effort will will not be forgotten I wasn't always treated nicely by the public but uh I gave a few barbs out myself but I want to thank the public because it's it's how government works this is director Payne's last major project before she retires in June she says if communities are concerned about Farmland becoming warehouses they should call her office and see if it's feasible to buy the land we can help assess whether anything's possible or not you know but we we definitely don't have the financial resources available to buy every um Warehouse proposal in the state so we've really tried to be um strategic and only do those that make a lot of sense while they probably can't cut a $27 million check every week it could be worth a look for places who want to keep their farmland and hold on to their rural Heritage in White Township I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news support for the business report is provided by Riverview Jazz presenting the 11th annual Jersey City Jazz Festival May 29th to June 2nd event details including performance schedules and location or online at Jersey City jazz festival.com