Hundreds of Burlington County farm acres were to become housing. Here's how that didn't happen.

If not for a court battle, the 285-acre Van Wagoner family farm in Springfield, Burlington County, would have been turned into a large housing development.

But Springfield Township won a lawsuit, opposing a developer's high-density housing plan by asserting, among other things, that housing would have been out of line with the goal of preserving farmland in Burlington County.

And, on Wednesday, the county did just that: County Commissioners announced they had an agreement with the Van Wagoner family to preserve nearly 270 acres of the farm.

"This farm was on the county's list for preservation for decades," County Commissioner Deputy Director Allison Eckel said in a statement. "It's a beautiful property and we're thrilled to finally be able to take this action to keep the land as agriculture and open space forever."

Using state, county and other programs, Burlington County has preserved a total of more than 67,000 acres of farmland — nearly 72% of the 93,594 acres of farms that the 2022 Census of Agriculture found in the county.

Another Springfield farm, the 70-acre Three Willows Farm, was preserved by the state this summer, according to an August announcement.

Although the county will not release the exact cost of preserving the Van Wagoner farm until after closing on the agreement, resolutions approved by the commissioners estimated $3 million for farmland preservation and open space acquisition, according to county spokesman David Levinsky. Eighty percent of the cost of farmland preservation is eligible for reimbursement by the state, he said.

Burlington County is second to Salem County in the state in the total acreage devoted to farms, according to the census, a program of the U.S. Census Bureau. The 925 farms reported in the census in Burlington County make it fourth among counties, after Hunterdon, Sussex and Monmouth.

The 63-year-old Van Wagoner farm was originally operated as a dairy farm before switching to grain and corn. Now it farms pumpkins, hay and grain. John Van Wagoner, a fourth-generation farmer, originally purchased the property. He died in 2022 at 97.

"In 1975, John's dairy farming evolved into raising crops and selling filters for anything with a motor," according to his obituary in the Burlington County Times. 

"Though typically a man of few words, he often peppered visitors with questions to learn as much as he could: how they saw the world, details of their work, their genealogy to add to the ever-growing database he kept as a hobby," the obituary noted.

John Van Wagoner's farm is next to Arney's Mount, the highest elevation in Burlington County and the site of Burlington County's 200-acre Arney's Mount Park.

"Elsie Nicolette, John Van Wagoner's daughter, said her late father continued to work the land and care for the property in his 90s," according to the county announcement. "She said he enjoyed watching the county's plans for a county park progress next door and would have been pleased to see his family's property enter the county's preservation program."

"We know that, like us, he would have been very grateful to see the tradition of farming continued through the preservation of the land," she said in a statement.