Buying Land in Somerset County, New Jersey

Two distinct regional land features: the Highlands (north) and the Sourlands (south)

Somerset County is one of the seven counties covered by the 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, but its Highlands footprint is notably smaller and more locally governed than most of the other Highlands counties in this project's New Jersey coverage. In total, 47,555 acres of Somerset County fall within the mapped Highlands Region -- and the overwhelming majority of that, 46,546 acres, sits in the more flexible, locally governed Planning Area rather than the strict, state-controlled Preservation Area (just 1,009 acres). This Highlands acreage concentrates in the county's north, in the "Somerset Hills" -- Bedminster, Bernardsville, Bernards Township, Far Hills, and Peapack-Gladstone -- an area known for rolling hills, large-lot residential development, and open farmland along the Raritan Valley.

Separately, and geographically distinct from the Highlands, Somerset County's south and southwest touch the Sourland Mountain region -- a forested ridge and distinct ecological/geologic feature that also runs through neighboring Hunterdon and Mercer Counties. The Sourland Mountain Preserve, a county-owned property exceeding 3,000 acres administered by the Somerset County Park Commission, anchors this area. The Sourlands are not part of the Highlands regulatory regime; they're a separate regional conservation feature with their own set of protected and privately held forest and farmland. A buyer should not assume either overlay automatically reaches a given parcel just because it's somewhere in Somerset County -- confirm specifically whether a property sits within the mapped Highlands boundary in the north, near the Sourlands preserve area in the south, or in neither.

Government, zoning, and a genuine urban-to-rural range

As everywhere in New Jersey, Somerset County's municipalities each zone independently under the Municipal Land Use Law, and the county itself covers real range -- from denser eastern towns near the Raritan Valley (Franklin Township, Bound Brook, Somerville itself) to large-lot, more rural western and southern towns (Hillsborough, Montgomery, Bedminster, Far Hills) where open farmland and larger residential parcels remain common. The county is governed by a Board of County Commissioners, but zoning determinations go to the specific municipality -- and, for a parcel near either the Highlands boundary in the north or the Sourlands preserve in the south, a follow-up call to confirm any applicable overlay is worthwhile.

Septic: centralized at the county health department

Somerset County centralizes septic permitting at the county level. The Somerset County Department of Health's Consumer/Environmental Health staff directly witness permeability tests, review septic system designs, and issue permits for new installations as well as alterations or repairs to existing systems -- a single, centralized point of contact rather than the more fragmented, municipality-by-municipality structure found in some other counties in this project's New Jersey coverage. The same office also investigates reports of malfunctioning septic systems and water-pollution complaints, whether from residents or referred by NJDEP. This applies under the same statewide N.J.A.C. 7:9A standard covered on our New Jersey state page.

The Somerset Hills: also a nationally significant equestrian corridor

Beyond the Highlands and Sourlands, the same northern Somerset Hills towns -- Bedminster, Bernardsville, Far Hills, and Peapack-Gladstone -- carry an equestrian distinction few New Jersey counties can match: the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation is headquartered at Hamilton Farm in Peapack-Gladstone, and the Far Hills Race Meeting has drawn tens of thousands of spectators to Moorland Farm every October since 1915. Somerset County also runs its own County-Direct Easement Program, preserving farms that fall outside the state's standard eligibility criteria but matter to the local agricultural economy. This is developed further in a dedicated horse-property standalone for this county.