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Friday, January 24, 2003
Camco OKs $28M to buy open space
By JIM WALSH
Courier-Post Staff
BELLMAWR
Camden County's freeholders on Thursday launched an ambitious effort to acquire open space, approving $28 million in bonds to finance land preservation.
The county now will seek to negotiate deals with the owners of more than 350 acres of prime property, much of it in highly developed areas.
Land targeted for acquisition by year's end includes two Voorhees properties - the 140-acre Stafford Farm at Evesham and White Horse roads and the 95-acre Kresson Golf Club on Kresson Road.
Also on the county's shopping list: Blueberry Hill, a 56- acre wooded site on United States Avenue in Gibbsboro, and the Hill Property, a 68-acre stretch of forest along Big Timber Creek in Gloucester Township.
Officials also hope to preserve an undetermined amount of farmland, primarily in Waterford and Winslow, said Peter Fontaine, who heads the county's advisory committee for open-space issues.
The bonds will greatly increase the county's buying power. Preservation efforts previously were funded by an open- space tax that raised just $2 million a year, Fontaine said.
"This is giving us money to stay ahead of the development curve," he said. "Before, by the time we were ready to acquire a parcel, a developer already had an interest in it."
The county has protected about 640 acres in the past three years. Its goal is to preserve 2,000 acres over a decade, Fontaine said.
David Stafford, whose family owns the Voorhees horse farm being sought by the county, praised the decision at a freeholders' meeting here.
"We're excited," he said. "It's always been our wish to preserve the farm as open space."
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Friday, January 24, 2003
Camco plans to compete for land
By JIM WALSH
Courier-Post Staff
BELLMAWR
Camden County's new strategy for open-space acquisition follows a principle familiar to any shopper: It's easier to make big purchases with credit than with cash.
The county's freeholders, meeting here Thursday night, agreed to borrow $28 million for an open-space shopping spree.
That sizable bankroll will help the county compete with well-heeled developers in the battle for desirable land, said Freeholder-Director Jeffrey Nash.
"This is a terrific investment," said Nash, who described the county's pending bond issue as one of the largest of its type in the state.
The county previously had a land-preservation budget of about $2 million annually, funded through an open-space tax of one penny per $100 of assessed value.
"That was not keeping up with the purchases made by developers," Nash said at the public hearing in the Mullen Community Center.
As a sign of intense development pressure in Camden County, Nash noted one builder was undeterred by the recent preservation of Slim's Ranch, a 45-acre site along Big Timber Creek in the Chews Landing section of Gloucester Township.
"A developer actually called the county, wanting to buy it from us," he said.
Cindy Gilman, a land conservationist, called the county's plan bold and aggressive.
"This is the exact move that they needed to make," said Gilman, a project manager at the Trust for Public Land, a a nonprofit organization.
"With rising land values and intense development pressure, the window of opportunity (for preservation) in Camden County is very small."
The county program also will benefit from the use of state funds, including Green Acres money, and from payments by municipalities where large tracts of land will be preserved, said Peter Fontaine, who heads the county's s s advisory committee on open-space issues.
Nash said the county will cover debt service for its bonds with the $2 million raised by the open-space tax.
As a result, he said, "This bond will not cost another taxpayer dime."
Reach Jim Walsh at (856) 486-2646 or jwalsh@courierpostonline.com
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Posted on Mon, Feb. 03, 2003
Camden County raises stakes in race to grab scarce space
A $28 million bond issue is its attempt to hold builders at bay.
By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer
DAVID M WARREN / Inquirer
A horse works up a dust cloud on a track at the Stafford Farm in Voorhees, where a housing development appears in the background. The farm is one of several properties that Camden County wants to protect with $28 million in bonds. The county found that $2 million a year wasn’t enough to keep builders from outpacing it with purchases.
Camden County freeholders are in a race with developers for control of the few large open tracts of land remaining in Voorhees, Gibbsboro, and other built-up suburbs.
Their weapon is the $28 million bond issue freeholders approved last month. They went for the big bond issue after realizing that "we're losing the battle," said Peter Fontaine, head of the county's Open Space Advisory Committee.
County figures show that after spending $4 million in 1999 and 2000, the county purchased 520 acres while developers bought 800.
"When looking at densely populated communities, if you don't save what's there now, it's gone tomorrow," said Cindy Gilman, a project manager with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, which has helped the county and other communities around the country buy open space. She predicted that if the county didn't buy land now, nothing would be left in five years.
Developers counter that there must be new homes for people who want to live in Camden County.
Initially the bonds will pay part of the costs to acquire the Kresson Golf Course in Voorhees, Blueberry Hill in Gibbsboro, and 68 acres known as the Hill property in Gloucester Township. Freeholders are looking at other properties as well, including farms in rural Winslow and Waterford.
According to figures from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, few of the county's 227 square miles are developable.
About 112 square miles are covered with homes, playing fields, roads, utility easements, parking lots, and government, commercial or industrial buildings. Fifty-eight of the county's 84 square miles of woods are in Waterford and Winslow, where development is restricted by Pinelands regulations. About 7 square miles are waterways. The most likely development targets are 17 square miles of farmland and 7 square miles of vacant property, scattered around the county.
"There are still some large parcels left," Gilman said, but she added a cautionary note: "It's just the cost of them are prices I've never seen - $100,000 an acre or more" in some cases.
She said most of the land targeted for county acquisition would be east of Interstate 295, where there is more open space than in areas fanning out from Camden.
Fontaine, an environmental lawyer, said he thought prices would only go up.
"Land is only going to get more expensive in New Jersey, where we have a very limited supply and tremendous development pressures," he said. "Those two factors drive up costs."
Towns can keep costs down by rejecting zoning for high-density developments that make land more valuable, suggested Chris Strum, a consultant to New Jersey Future, an open-space advocacy group in Trenton.
Still, developers argue that counties have to plan for more housing.
"We still have to find homes for people, particularly in Camden County, which is one of the areas they [state planners] want us to build in," said Douglas M. Fenichel, spokesman for K. Hovnanian Cos. Northeast Inc. "There still have to be opportunities for us to do that."
And he noted that even though the McGreevey administration was pushing for development in cities and older suburbs, "there are still going to be people who prefer to live out in suburbs and in rural areas."
Fontaine said the county was not trying to discourage development. Rather, the bond deal is intended to enhance the quality of life and maybe even get a grip on property taxes.
In Gibbsboro, Mayor Edward G. Campbell said: "We're not just doing this to preserve open space. It makes economic sense."
Gibbsboro is encouraging commercial developments while discouraging housing developments. Campbell said a house would have to sell for at least $250,000 to generate enough taxes to cover town costs such as schools, police, trash pickup and infrastructure.
The $28 million alone won't get the county to its goal of buying 2,000 acres by 2010. Jack Sworaski, the county's director of environmental affairs, said county officials planned to match it with other government and foundation money.
Since 1999, the freeholders have been spending roughly $2 million a year to buy open space. With that and other money, they purchased Lake Worth in Lindenwold, Slims Ranch in Gloucester Township, and a sand pit in Voorhees.
The bonds would be backed with a 1-cent county property tax for open space that voters approved in 1998 and generates about $2.2 million a year. An average of $1.8 million a year from that tax fund would be used to retire the bonds in 30 years, said Philip Rowan, executive director of the Camden County Improvement Authority.
The likely interest rates would range from 1 percent on one-year bonds to 5 percent on the 30-year bonds. Bond counsel is Parker, McCay & Criscuolo of Marlton, and the trustee is Commerce Bank of Cherry Hill.
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.
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Posted on Thu, Apr. 17, 2003
Virtua Health is buying land for a new hospital on Route 73
By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer
VOORHEES - Virtua Health is busy staking claim to properties along Route 73 in Voorhees to build a hospital serving women and children.
The two-mile stretch of highway is the final frontier for commercial development in the almost built-out, upscale township.
Mayor Harry Platt said he believed the hospital would begin seeking local approvals for a new center in the fall or winter. Getting state and local approvals as well as sewer service could mean years before a shovel touches the earth.
"We're in the process of purchasing some land in Voorhees Township because all of our hospitals are landlocked," said Jane Yepez, Virtua's vice president of marketing and public affairs. "It's very difficult to do an expansion on our existing campuses in Marlton and Voorhees."
With four hospitals, long-term care facilities, and a variety of outpatient services, Virtua is one of the area's largest employers.
Looking at projections for health-care usage in the next decade, Virtua believes that the need for women's and children's services will grow, Yepez said.
Jerry Katz, a health-care market analyst based in Plymouth Meeting, agreed. "It's a very substantial market, particularly for Virtua, because they have such an enormous number of births, which leads to an enormous number of children," he said.
He said more babies are born at Virtua's hospitals than anywhere else in the region. Virtua statistics show that 7,000 babies are born annually in its Voorhees and Mount Holly hospitals.
Around the country, he said, as many as 25 children's hospitals are being built or expanded.
"Children's hospitals are able to raise a lot of money through donations," he explained.
News of the hospital's intentions and the potential for spin-off businesses such as doctors' offices and labs comes as a citizens' committee is busy designing a new zoning plan for the township's piece of the highway between Marlton and Berlin.
The group has been working for about a year, largely unaware that the dominant land use on Route 73 could be health care.
"We were hoping for a hometown feel," said Lori Volpe, a committee member who also heads the Voorhees Environmental and Recreational Alliance. "We're concerned that Virtua would install a sewage facility and would provide sewer service for the corridor, and that developers would start seeking approvals before we have made changes to the existing zoning."
So far, the citizens' committee has produced a draft report calling for the four-lane highway with a grass median to be developed like a charming boulevard, with hotel and banquet facilities as well as small-scale retail and office development.
Committee members also talked about asking merchants to place parking lots behind their buildings, so that drivers and residents would not be faced with a sea of asphalt as they move down the highway.
The plan, which is not final, does not include institutional uses such as a hospital.
David Meyer, a lawyer, head of the township's Economic Development Committee, and a member of the citizens' group, was a little disappointed.
"We had this wonderful vision which apparently isn't going to happen," he said.
However, Township Committeeman Dean Mazurek said the hospital could fit in with plans to control the look of development on the road.
"I feel that this is a great use for the land," he said. "I believe we can still achieve our goal of having a nice, uniform look."
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com.
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Interest in land causing stir
Voorhees Route 73 panel cautious as hospital group sizes up acreage
Saturday, April 19, 2003
By BILL DUHART
Courier-Post Staff
VOORHEES
Virtua Health, a nonprofit South Jersey hospital consortium, is in the process of staking a claim to a wide swath of land on Route 73 here. The purchase, which some local development experts think may reach 80 acres, is some of the last available land in a nearly built-out township.
But some, even among groups who want to see the land developed, are not comfortable with the news.
Virtua's move surprised several members of a township-appointed committee charged with carving out a development plan for the corridor. Among the concerns is that Virtua's planned land purchase, and preliminary plans to expand its facilities in the township, could be implemented before committee recommendations about zoning changes can be considered.
"I'm not against a hospital on Route 73," said Lori Volpe, a homemaker and member of the committee considering development. "I'm just concerned about the process. We would rather have design standards intact."
Volpe said the township's Route 73 committee was leaning toward aesthetic zoning requirements such as locating parking in the rear and tree-lined borders for setbacks. She said she was further alarmed that some township officials believed zoning recommendations for Route 73 will be part of a master plan review next year, which may be too late to shape development.
Township Committeeman Dean Mazurek said enacting some zoning regulations on Route 73 so close to the master plan review might give the appearance of spot zoning. But Mazurek said he thought some of the main recommendations about development on the corridor can be in place before a hospital, or anything else, is built there. The committeeman added that he thought a hospital would be an excellent use of the land.
The 2-mile Route 73 corridor here is largely undeveloped because it lacks sewer services. It's a marked contrast to the highway in neighboring towns such as Evesham and Berlin Township. Upscale shopping abounds to the north in Evesham and acres of car lots and other developments line Route 73 to the south in Berlin Township.
Route 73 is the most heavily traveled road in South Jersey, with parts of it handling 81,000 vehicles on a typical weekday, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Virtua officials said their plans are in very early stages, but confirmed the organization was negotiating to buy several plots of land on Route 73.
Virtua, which owns four hospitals and other medical facilities in the region, said it expects needs for medical services, especially for women and children, to grow in the next 10 to 20 years. All of its current facilities, including a 50-acre hospital campus in Voorhees, are landlocked with little space to expand.
"We're still in the process of acquiring land and the plan is to get contiguous land and at some point down the road look to grow the business," said Richard Miller, Virtua's president and CEO. Miller said there are no current plans to close any of its existing facilities in the expansion plans.
David Myer, an attorney and head of the township's economic development committee, said he's all for good health care in the area, but questioned if a nonprofit such as Virtua scooping up one of the last tracts of developable land is as beneficial as a taxable businesses would be.
"It would be a loss of revenue to the township if a purely nonprofit entity moved in," Meyer said. "From a purely economic standpoint, that's a downside."
Miller said Virtua wants to be a partner with the local community. He said Virtua pays fees to Voorhees for municipal services in lieu of taxes.
Township officials have said a prerequisite for any business wishing to build on the Route 73 corridor would be for it to install sewer lines.
Reach Bill Duhart at (856) 486-2576 or bduhart@courierpostonline.com
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Voorhees Profile
• Land area: 11.6 square miles
• Government: Mayor Harry A. Platt; 4 council members
• Representation:1st Congressional District; 6th Legislative District
• 2000 voter registration: 14,663; 3,528 Democrat, 1,815 Republican, 51 Independent, 9,269 undeclared
• Taxable residential property: 66.0%
• Taxable commercial property: 25.4%
• Taxable apartment property: 5.2%
• Taxes by local school districts (2000): $26,414,283.99
• School tax rate: $1.696 per $100 of assessed valuation
• Taxes raised by municipal government (2000): $8,908,591.06
• Municipal tax rate: $0.572 per $100 of assessed valuation
• Taxes raised by county government (2000): $16,508,927.49
• County tax rate: $1.06 per $100 of assessed valuation
• Actual total tax rate (2000): $4.052 per $100 of assessed valuation
• Average residential assesed value (2000): $128,828
• Estimated tax on average assessed value home: $5,220.11
Population
2000
|
27,581
|
2005 (projected)
|
27,584
|
Median age of population
|
39.0
|
Average residency
|
6.9 years
|
Age of population
|
Under age 6
|
2,061
|
Age 6-13
|
2,921
|
14-24
|
3,960
|
25-34
|
3,012
|
35-44
|
4,961
|
45-54
|
4,778
|
55-64
|
2,284
|
65 and over
|
3,604
|
By race
|
White
|
19,677
|
Black
|
2,527
|
Hispanic
|
1,024
|
Asian, Pacific Islander
|
4,310
|
American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut
|
43
|
Education
|
(Base is adults aged 25+)
|
|
Less than high school
|
2,168
|
High school graduate
|
4,332
|
Some college, no degree
|
3,022
|
Associate degree
|
1,270
|
Bachelor's degree
|
4,922
|
Graduate degree
|
2,925
|
Employment
|
At work
|
97.6%
|
Out of work
|
2.4%
|
White-collar
|
76.6% (12,441)
|
Blue-collar
|
23.4% (3,794)
|
Types of Jobs (16,235 total)
|
Agriculture
|
108
|
Machine operators/assemblers
|
384
|
Transport/material moving
|
261
|
Handlers, cleaners, and helpers
|
278
|
Sales
|
2,859
|
Executive, administrative/management
|
3,895
|
Adminsitrative support/clerical
|
2,087
|
Private household service
|
9
|
Professional specialist
|
3,600
|
Technicians and support
|
678
|
Production, craft and repair
|
949
|
Protective services
|
150
|
Other services
|
977
|
Households
|
|
2000
|
10,545
|
Income
|
Under $10,000
|
370
|
$10,000 - $14,999
|
389
|
$15,000 - $24,999
|
605
|
$25,000 - $34,999
|
722
|
$35,000 - $49,999
|
1,484
|
$50,000 - $74,999
|
2,136
|
$75,000 - $99,999
|
1,627
|
$100,000 - $149,999
|
1,836
|
$150,000 - $249,999
|
683
|
$250,000 - $499,999
|
505
|
$500,000 and over
|
188
|
(Source, Map info 2000), Voorhees offical web site, Camden County board of Taxation
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Stafford Farm pre-dates Revolution
By BILL SHRALOW
Courier-Post Staff
VOORHEES
From an open cart tethered to the rear of the 1,100-pound standardbred, Christine Stafford guides Egghimon out of a weathered barn, down a dirt path between two corals, and onto a slate gray oval track a half-mile around.
Stafford, 30, trots the horse past a stand of trees bordering distant fields used for growing hay.
Bright sunshine warms the chill off the morning.
Stafford and Egghimon trot around the track's far end, near the Super G supermarket and the gas station on four-lane Evesham Road, where rush-hour traffic surges like a never-ending metal river.
Coming out of the far turn, horse and driver leave traffic behind and once again enter a different world. Barnyard dogs lounge in the sun near rustic farmhouses. The smell of hay and horses drifts from stables, and traffic noise is muffled to a distant hum.
Stafford Farm is among the last vestiges of a bygone era in Voorhees and surrounding towns, a time before strip centers and BMWs dominated. Ringed by residential and commercial development, it is a working farm which breeds, raises, trains and races horses for harness racing.
The farm has been in the Stafford family for more than 225 years. It is still a family operation; Christine works the farm along with her father, mother, brother, uncles and cousins.
"I've tried other jobs," Christine says, patting Egghimon after the ride, "but I always come back to these guys.
"I just like being outside. I love the horses."
"There's just something about horses," says Christine's mother, Susie, as she sponges Egghimon with warm water and special soap. "Each one is an individual. They each respond to you differently. They're warm and they cuddle."
Raising and training horses has been the family's main business since the late 1960s, said Pete Stafford, 61, who owns the 142-acre farm along with his younger brothers Randall III, Alvin, Arthur, Benjamin and David. Alvin, Arthur and Benjamin operate the horse business on a daily basis, along with their sons and daughters and Susie, Alvin's wife.
The family has owned the land since before the Revolutionary War, Pete Stafford said.
His ancestors, brothers John and Richard Stafford, came to the area from England, Pete Stafford explained. Though they would later support the American Revolution, John and Richard were granted land by King George, and "probably bought more land through the years," Pete said. They acquired even more land by marriage, he added.
The farm always had horses for transportation and growing crops, even through World War II. Pete's grandfather, Randall Stafford Sr., a descendant of the early Staffords who inherited the land, had an interest in racehorses and owned one named Star in the 1920s and 1930s, which he raced on a track in nearby Gibbsboro. Then in 1948, Pete's father, Randall Jr., bought his first racehorse, but continued to drill wells as his main vocation.
In the late 1960s, though, Pete and his brothers grew old enough to drive horses in the harness racing carts. Ever since, horses have been the family's main business. The Staffords stable, care for and train horses owned by others, but some family member or another has at least part-ownership in most of the horses on the farm. About 35 horses are in training here, and another dozen or so are used for riding and breeding. Each racing horse is worth around $10,000 and in many cases several times that.
The day starts early at Stafford Farm. Horses and drivers are on the track by 7:30 summer mornings and between 8 and 8:30 in the winter, said Pete's nephew, Trevor Stafford, 31. The horses get worked out six days a week year-round except in extreme cold that could hurt the horses' lungs, Trevor said. That includes racing once or twice a week at the Meadowlands and Freehold in New Jersey and in Dover and Harrington in Delaware.
Workouts usually last 30 minutes or so. With dozens of racing horses to train, plus the preparation and after-workout pampering and stable-cleaning, it is a full day of hard work. It could never be done without Leslie Jett, the head groom who directs the stable, said Trevor Stafford, who describes Jett as the "backbone of the stable."
Trevor says he doesn't miss the 80 to 90 hours weeks he was working just two years ago as supervisor of a large catering hall on Long Island, N.Y.
"It's so relaxing here," Trevor said. "It's a different world. New York was go, go, go."
The farm has seen its share of tragedy. In October 1990, fire swept through a barn, killing 15 horses valued at $300,000. Officials never determined an exact cause, but have told the Staffords there was no sign of arson.
The future of the farm is still uncertain, but the Staffords and the township both would like to see the land preserved, and possibly retain its current usage. The property, 142 acres of prime real estate, is high on the township environmental commission's priority list for preservation. The township has set aside $6 million for open space, which it can use to attract several times that from other government and private sources.
Pete Stafford said he hopes a deal can be reached.
"We're proud of what goes on there and we feel we've been good stewards of the land and good citizens of Voorhees since before it was Voorhees," Pete said. "We would like to see the land remain as open space if we can work it out with the township."
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Deal reached to preserve landmark Voorhees farm
Saturday, May 17, 2003
By LAWRENCE HAJNA and BILL DUHART
Courier-Post Staff
VOORHEES
A nonprofit group has reached an agreement that may lead to the preservation of one of Camden County's most coveted pieces of real estate - the Stafford horse farm.
While the exact purchase price has not been disclosed, Freeholder-Director Jeffrey Nash on Friday confirmed it will be in the $20 million range, comparable to offers the landowners have gotten from developers.
At this price, the 142-acre farm would sell for a hefty $141,000 per acre. Land values in densely populated Camden County tend to be high, said Nash, who supports the purchase.
"Saving the farm is critical to the quality of life in that area. It's a beautiful piece of property," Nash said.
The farm represents one of the last vestiges of farming in the almost fully developed heart of central Camden County.
Located at the border of Cherry Hill at the intersection of Springdale, White Horse and Evesham roads, the farm is a landmark for many residents for its rolling pastures and white fences. It is surrounded by upscale developments and shopping centers.
Under an agreement with six brothers who own the farm, the Trust for Public Land has until the end of the year to cobble together a funding package to complete the deal, Cindy Gilman, a senior project manager for the group, said Friday.
She declined to disclose the sale price, saying "we don't want to get into a bidding war with developers."
Pete Stafford, 63, the eldest brother, said he is confident the deal will be pulled off.
"There are a lot of hurdles we have already cleared," he said. "The family is very optimistic. We think we can make this happen."
Mayor Harry Platt plans to meet with Gilman Monday to discuss the purchase. If the deal goes through, Platt expects the township to own and administer half the property as a passive-recreation park.
This will likely mean no more than a trail through woods linking the Voorhees Middle School and Eastern Regional High School, Gilman said.
The state agriculture department is expected to own the remainder of the land and eventually lease it as an operating horse farm, Gilman said.
The sale agreement was reached in February but was not revealed until Friday. The trust plans to hold a community meeting to discuss the purchase May 29.
"We're trying to take the pulse of the community, to let them know how important protecting this land is," Gilman said. "It's going to cost a lot of money, and we need a lot of funding agencies to step up."
The Trust for Public Land says it already has pledges of support from Voorhees and Camden County open space preservation programs, but the bulk of the funding will have to come from several state sources, Gilman said.
"With this type of price tag, the state definitely has the deeper pockets," Gilman said.
Gilman has applied for a farmland preservation grant through the State Agricultural Development Committee, and has even applied to the Department of Transportation for money under a program designed to ease traffic congestion.
The lion's share, however, will likely come through the Garden State Preservation Trust, a program approved by New Jersey voters in 1998 to preserve New Jersey's dwindling open spaces.
Generally, the state wants to pay the value of the land appraised in its current use, in this case agriculture, said Judy Jengo, the program's director.
However, she added that the state uses a complex formula that factors in things like development pressures and ecological value in arriving at a price it will pay. In one case, the state paid $99,000 for a quarter-acre of land in North Jersey because it linked larger protected tracts, she said.
John Stafford, a Quaker who served as a bodyguard to George Washington during the Revolution, started the farm after the war, Pete Stafford said.
Over the centuries, the farm was used to raise corn, wheat, barley, peaches, apples, tomatoes, rye and many other crops. Today, the brothers raise and train standardbred racing horses for themselves and others. They also grow hay.
The Stafford Farm is zoned for mixed commercial and residential uses, which is why developers covet the land, Gilman said. She said the Stafford brothers have received an offer from a developer as high as $20 million.
"It's almost 100 percent uplands. These types of tracts are few and far between in New Jersey. Most properties like these have already been developed," Gilman said.
Stafford said he and his brothers have always preferred seeing the land preserved. This goal, however, could become compromised because the brothers have many children who will inherit the land.
"We're all getting older and we're concerned about what might happen to the place in the next generation because there are so many people involved," he said.
Most of the brothers plan to get into farming in other parts of New Jersey or other states, Stafford said.
He added that farming in the current location has become untenable, partly because of conflicts with neighbors but mostly because of traffic.
"The point is you can't get out on the roads," he said. "You're really risking your life with traffic when you're in a tractor that can only go 15 miles per hour."
He added: "There's a certain sadness among all of us because the farm has been in the family for so long. There's a real reluctance to let it go."
Reach Lawrence Hajna at (856) 486-2466 or lhajna@courierpostonline.com
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Posted on Wed, Jun. 11, 2003
How open-space drives can end up in the rough
By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer
VOORHEES - Sometime after midnight on Nov. 8, 2001, a weary township planning board gave preliminary approval to the property owner's plans to allow 217 homes on the 156-acre Kresson Golf Course.
Nothing so unusual about that. Except that the board's decision - which vastly increased the market value of the land - came even as the mayor, Camden County and the state were negotiating to buy the golf course for open space. If they succeed, any increase in the price will land in the laps of taxpayers.
The golf course, owned by the Aducat family, is one of the few open spaces in the township. And the battle over its future has brought together the sometimes conflicting issues of private property rights, the public interest, and the effort to preserve space in rapidly developing South Jersey.
If the government bought and preserved Kresson now, it would block the potential development of 217 homes in a desirable, upscale suburb about 30 minutes from Philadelphia. The site's wetlands, endangered swamp pink flower, and six lakes are already protected by state environmental regulations.
Appraisals of Kresson's value won't be in for several months, but based on recent development nearby, the land could sell to a developer for more than $20 million.
Failing to preserve the golf course could cost even more, Mayor Harry Platt said. His administration estimates that educating children from a development could cost taxpayers $1.5 million a year; it is researching other costs for services.
In seeking approval to build the housing, the Aducat family, which has owned the land since 1936, was merely exercising its property rights, said Donna Platt, the family's attorney, who is not related to the mayor.
"The concept of preserving and obtaining the maximum value for your property is a basic American right," Platt said at the 2001 hearing. "All they're doing is what anybody else would do."
The Aducats would not comment for this article.
Others criticized the township for zoning the golf course for 1.4 homes an acre in 1998, the same year voters said they wanted the township to buy it.
"What municipalities have to think about is what message they're sending to their residents and would-be developers through their zoning ordinance," said Barbara Lawrence, executive director of New Jersey Future, a land-use think tank. "On the one hand, they're saying through some public referenda and plan they want open space, but it's their zoning ordinance that sends the real legal message about what they want."
Zoning that can reap huge profits for landowners "is not a God-given right," Lawrence said, adding that few towns will take on a powerful landowner.
In 1998 and 1999, Voorhees was rewriting its master plan, an arduous task that clarified land use in the 11.6-square-mile township, then-Township Solicitor Barbara Casey said. Township officials brought the Aducats and other big landowners into the process, and a compromise with the Aducats reduced zoning on their land from 2.4 units an acre to 1.4.
Still, some argued, the property should have been placed off limits to development, since voters had said in 1989 and 1998 that they wanted the golf course preserved.
"The process is fundamentally flawed when you have the same people controlling the value of property - that is, the township - and they're trying to buy it," said Ravi Kothare, a Voorhees resident who is a lawyer and an accountant. "As a practical matter, it's almost an oxymoron. There has to be a better way to deal with those types of issues."
Towns have a variety of tools available for open-space preservation, including low-density zoning, ordinances that prohibit development on hillsides, and condemnation.
Condemnation - in which a government takes land for a public purpose and compensates the owner at a fair market value decided in court - is becoming increasingly popular, said Alison Mitchell, policy director for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
"It's a matter of the town deciding what it wants to see there," she said.
Mindful of the Aducats' property rights and wary of litigation, Voorhees has been unwilling to condemn the land or zone it for very low density.
The 2001 planning board decision was the second time the Aducats won approval for developing the golf course while negotiating with the government to sell the land as open space.
The earlier negotiation failed because the township did not offer enough money to satisfy the owner, former Mayor Gary Finger said.
"Every time people came close to his number, he wanted more," Finger said, referring to John Aducat, a family member.
The last known asking price is believed to be $17 million. Government appraisals have put the land at $3 million and $6.8 million over the years.
Voters rejected paying more than the appraisals in 1992.
Establishing the exact value of the land is difficult.
According to deeds, Harry Knight bought 57.5 acres of the property, containing a cranberry bog and a lake, for $5,000 in 1911. His daughter, Verna Brick, sold it to an Aducat ancestor in 1936 for $1. That began a chain of $1 transfers among Aducat family members for 40 years. Other sections, including four acres picked up for $300 at a tax foreclosure sale, were added, bringing the parcel to 156 acres.
While the $1 transfers obscure the land's value, its relative worth can be estimated by recent development in the area.
John Hooper, a Voorhees developer and president of the Builders League of South Jersey, said that, based on recent development on Kresson-Gibbsboro Road, where the golf course is located, unimproved single-family home lots can go for $200,000 to $250,000 and townhouse lots for $75,000 to $100,000. Homes along that stretch of road have been selling for more than $750,000, some for $1 million.
Prices in Camden County are high as open-space advocates compete with developers for the few remaining swaths of land, said Cindy Gilman, project manager for the Trust for Public Land, which is brokering the open-space deal in Voorhees. She declined to discuss negotiations.
Mary Aducat and her now-deceased husband, Herman, developed the golf course around the 1950s, according to residents. Son John acts as her business manager and has other enterprises, including a billboard company, a gun club, and a real estate business.
About half of the golf course - 70 acres of woods - gets a tax break known as a farmland assessment, authorized by the township and approved by the county and state. The Aducats pay $1,580 in taxes on the woods, which they farm for firewood. The land produced 10 cords of wood in 2001, according to the latest available records.
For decades, the golf course, which is open to the public, has held a club liquor license, a permission granted by the township and renewed yearly. Such licenses are available only to nonprofit organizations, such as golf clubs with 60 or more members, said David Bregenzer, counsel to the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Kresson Golf Course is neither a nonprofit organization nor a club, according to the state Treasurer's Office.
The mayor said he had not noticed that the golf course was not a nonprofit club.
The Aducats' attorneys include Donna Platt and her husband, Stuart. Stuart Platt is also the planning board's attorney. When the Aducats have appeared before the board, represented by his wife, he has stepped aside.
It is standard for a solicitor to recuse himself when a client appears before the body he represents, said Geoffrey Hazard, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and one of the country's foremost legal ethicists.
The Aducat family is a player in local politics, having donated a sign face in 1993 on Route 73 for an attack ad on former Sheriff Bob Simon and giving $800 to the mayor's campaign fund in 2000.
Because the golf course is privately owned, it is vulnerable to a sale.
"When you have a single owner, you only have one man whose decision matters," said Jim Finnegan, a golf historian and author of A Centennial Tribute to Golf in Philadelphia. "When you have a club, you have 300 owners. So if there are 300 and you can't get 151 to sell, you can't do a deal."
Golf courses are rare targets for open-space acquisition. In fact, more are being built as baby boomers take up golf, fearing injuries from the strain of other sports, such as tennis and basketball.
The Garden State Preservation Trust's executive director, Judy Jengo, said she had never preserved a golf course as open space.
Mitchell, however, said every community was different. In a mature suburb, a golf course could be - as it is in Voorhees - one of the few open spaces.
Proponents of the preservation deal argue that the loss of golf courses heralds urbanization. In Philadelphia, for example, few know that there was a nine-hole golf course at 52d Street and Chester Avenue. The former greens, fairways and tees look like much of West Philadelphia, with two-story rowhouses, a church, a commercial strip, and a few grand twins.
A developed Kresson Golf Course would look different, of course, but the memory of its tees and greens would soon fade.
Keeping Score of Kresson Plans
November 1989: Voorhees voters approve a nonbinding proposal, 3,499 to 1,900, to buy Kresson Golf Course.
June 1990:The Voorhees planning board votes to allow a 297-home subdivision on the golf course.
June 1991: John Aducat says he won't sell the golf course for less than $10 million.
October 1992:The township tax assessor says the land is worth $3 million.
November 1992:Voters reject a proposal, 5,886 to 3,547, to buy the golf course. The ballot question says the land was appraised at $6.8 million, and the township was willing to spend $10 million.
November 1998:This time, voters approve a proposal, 2,510 to 1,583, to buy the golf course and other properties for up to $10 million.
September 1999:Voorhees finishes redrawing its master plan, which reduces housing density on the golf course.
April 2000:The township's Environmental Advisory Board ranks Kresson Golf Course as the No. 1 property to acquire as open space because of its size and environmental features.
November 2001:The planning board gives the golf course approval for 109 single-family homes and 108 condominium units in two- and three-story buildings. Given recent nearby development values, the unimproved land could sell for more than $20 million.
Present: Voorhees and Camden County are negotiating to buy the golf course. The Trust for Public Land, acting for the government, says it has an oral agreement to preserve the land that expires in 2004.
Contact staff writer Cynthia Burton at 856-779-3858 or cburton@phillynews.com. Inquirer staff writer Frank Kummer contributed to this article.
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