The Value of Open Space

Behind the Danzeisen & Quigley shopping plaza on Route 70 in Cherry Hill, people test-ride bikes in the sports store's lot and push carts from the nearby Korean grocery as cars whiz past on I-295.

The scene is common in Cherry Hill, but not so the wooded land behind the plaza. It is one of the last pieces of unprotected open space in Cherry Hill, identified by a town committee as a leading candidate for preservation.

"Only scraps are left," said Lew Gorman, chairman of the volunteer Environmental Advisory Committee.

Preserving open space "is one of the most important things we can do in government," said Camden County Freeholder Jeff Nash, who described the obligation, a bit facetiously, as saving "space between the Wawas."

In a community as built-up as Cherry Hill, where shopping centers run the length of roadways, open space - a rare commodity - is of enormous value to developers and preservationists alike.

"We see more and more people moving to cities, but what makes [cities and suburbs] livable is access to recreation," said Chris Sturm of New Jersey Future, a nonprofit that promotes "smart growth" in community planning.

Beyond the environmental benefits of open space as a home for wildlife, it raises property values, diminishes traffic, and helps with flood abatement, advocates say.

Passions about open space ratcheted up over the sale of Woodcrest Country Club, a 155-acre oasis of green space in the township, to a real estate group at a bankruptcy auction last month.

The county, which partnered with the township, bid $7.2 million with the aim of shielding it from development. But First Montgomery Group of Marlton offered $10.1 million - far more than $6.5 million appraised value, according to the county.

First Montgomery - which has built apartment and retail complexes - reopened the club as a semi-private course, even as Nash and Cherry Hill officials continued to voice opposition to any development there.

Led by Gorman, Cherry Hill's Environmental Advisory Committee has evaluated privately owned undeveloped properties and ranked nine it says should be preserved.

The list includes property behind the Society Hill development on Springdale Road, along Lakeside Avenue, and on Chapel Avenue near I-295.

Only two - including the land behind Danzeisen & Quigley - are larger than 20 acres, said the committee, which prioritized parcels that are large, have wetlands, and touch other public land.

The list, created in 2009, did not include Woodcrest, said Gorman, because it was not expected to go on the market.

Given the intense demand, the committee will likely take a new look at the remaining open space, said Gorman, to "get ahead of the curve by prioritizing."

The threat of development has long been a driving force in Cherry Hill. In 2006 - the last time the township bought open space - it paid a developer $8.3 million for 42 acres on Browning Lane by Rosa International Middle School.

Also in 2006, the township bought 10 acres in two parcels on Briar Lane slated for residential development.

Those open space purchases are among 11 the township has made since 2000, including part of a wooded parcel between Church and Lenape Roads where 300 apartments had been planned, and the 45-acre Springhouse Farm on Springdale Road across from Springdale Farm - the last working farm in the township.

The 11 properties cost $20 million, said Cherry Hill spokeswoman Bridget Palmer, a tab shared by Camden County and the state's Green Acres Program, which awards up to 50 percent of the cost of an open space purchase.

The township's open-space fund currently has $967,000. Since it was established in 2000 through a tax of a penny per $100 of property value, it has generated $5.4 million, Palmer said. The township council voted before the Woodcrest auction to spend up to $960,000 on a bid for the course.

Near Springdale and Kresson Roads, the Diocese of Camden is moving forward with plans to install solar panels on a wooded tract of 30 acres behind the St. Mary's campus although it has not yet submitted plans to the township. The diocese is interested in using solar to power its buildings.

According to a township plan, Cherry Hill's 13,000 acres (not counting roadways) include 1,390 acres of parks and recreation facilities - a percentage considered desirable by the National Recreation and Park Association. As of 2010, Cherry Hill was about 16 percent wooded and 1.3 percent agricultural, according to Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission data.

In nearby Evesham, 46 percent of the land was wooded and 6.9 percent agricultural, according to the DVRPC. Mount Laurel was 23.3 percent wooded, 8.3 percent agricultural.

The data are estimates, based on aerial photos that could include wooded parts of backyards, and also don't distinguish between protected open space and privately owned, undeveloped land.

Cherry Hill, which underwent a development boom in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, isn't the only largely built-out community in the area.

In older communities such as Collingswood, Pennsauken, Camden City and Gloucester City, "there's just no open space to speak of," said Jack Sworaski, director of Camden County's division of environmental affairs.

To the advantage of open space advocates, the down economy has slowed development, making preservation deals more attractive to some landowners, said Christine Nolan, director of the South Jersey Land and Water Trust.

"Up until the market crashed, it was very difficult for us to compete" with developers, Nolan said. "Now, we have a lot more people interested."

But the sour economy also has made it more difficult to pay for open space. "At all levels, the funding to support this kind of work has evaporated," said Chris Jage, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation's assistant director for South Jersey.

Green Acres has spent the $400 million approved in a 2009 bond referendum, although a bill heard last week by the Senate would dedicate one-fifth of a cent of the state sales tax to the program. The Legislature is expected to vote this month on whether to place the measure on the November ballot.

Many counties and municipalities have lowered open space taxes or diverted the funds, with Camden County among the few that haven't, Jage said.

In Burlington County, freeholders voted last week to reduce the county's open space tax from $0.04 per $100 of value to $0.015, citing an existing $48 million reserve fund.

"They wanted to make sure they held the line on taxes," said county spokeswoman Charlene Webster. "They have more than enough to do everything as planned."

In Cherry Hill, open space advocates hope the worry over Woodcrest will spur new interest in protecting available land.

With the township and county having prepared to buy the golf course, "hopefully they can turn their sights to some other viable properties," said Jay Jones, a member of the environmental advisory committee. "Not everything is a concrete jungle."