Cherry Hill bought Holly Ravine Farm
and is leasing it back for crops.
By Justin Kelly
NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson
The township spent $3,859,000 on the Evesham and Springdale roads property after a developer proposed to clear it, and is now taking bids on an agricultural lease for about 9.5 acres of it.
What was reported
- Cherry Hill spent $3,859,000 on Holly Ravine Farm and preserved it as open space, after a developer proposed to clear the land and build
- About 9.5 acres go back into crops under an agricultural lease, with Township Council voting to authorize the bidding; the remaining 12 acres become trails and passive recreation
- The mayor calls it one of three: a Kingston neighborhood park opens in about 60 days on the former swim club site, and a 4.6 acre Brookfield playground in 60 to 90 days
The story
Cherry Hill Township spent $3,859,000 to buy Holly Ravine Farm at Evesham and Springdale roads and hold it as open space. The township decided to acquire the property from the heirs of former Mayor John C. Gilmour Jr., who began farming the land about 100 years ago, after a developer of senior housing proposed to clear it and build. Two Gilmour family farmhouses on the property were demolished earlier this year.
Rather than leave the ground idle, the township expects to put about 9.5 acres of it back into crops under an agricultural lease, with Township Council voting on a resolution to authorize bidding on that lease. The balance, about 12 acres, is set aside for public passive recreation, with new trails opening and the ravine itself made available for hiking. Mayor David Fleisher told 70and73 the township is close to accomplishing something virtually unheard of in New Jersey, meaning a working farm inside a mature suburb.
Fleisher describes Holly Ravine as one piece of what he calls a trifecta of protecting neighborhoods. The second is a park in the Kingston neighborhood, opening in about 60 days on the site of the failed Kingston Swim Club, which the township acquired and demolished; a township-owned street hockey court is being rebuilt and blended into that property. The third is a playground and open space in the Brookfield neighborhood, opening in 60 to 90 days on a 4.6 acre parcel bounded by Haddonfield-Berlin, Ashbrook and Oakdale roads and Route 295.
For a landowner, the useful part is who the buyer was. Three separate parcels in one township went to the municipality rather than to a builder, and in each case the town moved after a development plan surfaced. A municipal purchase runs on its own timetable, through public meetings, appraisals and a council vote, so it is slower than a builder's contract and it is not driven by what can be built on the ground. It is still a sale, at a price on the record.
Lease bidding and park opening timing are the township's, and can change. Acreage figures are as reported. Reported by 70and73.com. This is a summary in our own words; the full report is theirs.
Our take
A township bought this ground after a developer proposed to clear it, and is putting part of it back into crops. If you own acreage in South Jersey, a town is a real buyer for land, on slower terms than a builder.
