FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 1, 2008

County looking to add revolutionary byway

Effort follows successful farmland corridor designation

FREEHOLD – In keeping with county’s ongoing 325th Anniversary celebration, the Monmouth County Planning Board is encouraging towns along the county’s Revolutionary War routes to help guide the creation of a second state-designated scenic byway in the county. 

“A scenic byway extending from Upper Freehold to Monmouth Battlefield and on to Sandy Hook will provide residents and visitors with a wonderful journey along some of our county’s revolutionary crossroads,” said Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry, who supports the Planning Board’s advisory role in the scenic byway program. “The county will once again assist towns in the creation of a regional transportation corridor that focuses on the local Revolutionary War heritage.”

A scenic byway is a transportation corridor such as a public road, street, highway or waterway that has regionally outstanding scenic, natural, recreational, cultural, historic or archaeological significant intrinsic qualities that represent the uniqueness and diversity of an area. The corridor then uses these same qualities to create a unifying theme to tell a story about its heritage, distinctive characteristics and beauty.

State designation of a scenic byway allows communities along such a route to apply for federal grants to help plan for the preservation, enhancement and promotion of scenic byways. 

This current effort builds on the success of the county’s first scenic byway that was established in 2006. Working with assistance from Planning Board staff, Upper Freehold and Allentown earned scenic byway designation from the state Department of Transportation for the Upper Freehold Historic Farmland Byway. Subsequent to the byway designation, the Monmouth County Planning Board, with assistance from the local byway committee and DOT, applied for and received a national scenic byway discretionary grant for $115,880 to develop a Corridor Management Plan for byway implementation.

The Planning Board seeks to replicate this success by encouraging towns along the historic war routes to participate in expanding the scenic byway program in the county.

“Byways allow the communities to showcase their scenic roadways, recreational amenities, cultural institutions and some of our better-known, as well as our lesser-known, historic sites and districts,” said Freeholder John D’Amico, who serves as the freeholder liaison to the Planning Board.

The county intends to hold a series of informational outreach meetings designed to provide municipalities with a better understanding of how the scenic byway program works and what benefits can be expected from participating in such a program.

The Monmouth County Planning Board will initially invite municipalities located along the American Revolutionary War routes to the meeting, but will expand this effort to more communities to help tell the byway story. Concept scenic byways routes and maps of travel corridors will be used to begin the planning effort.

Please call the Monmouth County Planning Board at 732-431-7460 with questions about this project.

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