Camden County Approves Plan For Open Space In Cherry Hill

Cherry Hill, NJ -- The Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders has endorsed the Camden County Open Space Advisory Board’s recommendation to preserve 4.7-acres of open space in Cherry Hill’s Brookfield neighborhood.

The freeholders endorsed the plan with a unanimous vote during last Thursday’s meeting in Lawnside.

“This green space plays a vital role in the Cherry Hill community and will now become an asset for residents throughout the county,” Camden County Freeholder Jeffrey Nash, liaison to the Camden County Parks Department, said. “Any time we can work with a town to save open space threatened by development it enhances the quality of life for residents.”

The vote followed a vote by Cherry Hill Council last Monday night after the township reached a tentative agreement with Advanced Recovery Systems (ARS) to purchase the Masonic Lodge property on Haddonfield-Berlin Road.

The township and the county will buy Advanced Recovery’s Agreement of Sale with the Masons for $300,000. They would then purchase the property itself from the Masons for $1.4 million.

They plan to demolish the site’s existing building and preserve the parcel for open space and recreational use.

The agreement brings to an end a lawsuit filed by ARS over the summer. In the suit, ARS was seeking “default approval” for the project, which would’ve put a residential healthcare facility on the site.

The building is next to Cherry Hill’s Brookfield neighborhood. The facility would have directly abutted dozens of single-family homes, as well as Little League fields, Cahn said.

Officials were concerned about development of any kind at the site, because of how close it was to the neighborhood and the fields. There was also concern about the addition of traffic to an area that is already very congested.

The agreement will also help to revitalize the long-vacant Baker Lanes property on Cuthbert Boulevard, Cahn said.

If the agreement is approved, ARS, which had proposed a residential healthcare facility at the Masonic site, will be designated as the redeveloper for the Baker Lanes property.

“In this day and age this facility will provide an extraordinary service to the community as we can continue to battle the scourge of opioid addiction,” Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr., founder of the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force, said. “I applaud the mayor and town council for their work on this issue and their commitment to ensuring ARS would be able to provide its services to residents throughout the county afflicted by this disease.”

The Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force works with members of the community in healthcare, law enforcement and family advocates to educate, treat and preserve sobriety for those afflicted by the national opioid epidemic.

For more on the task force or to get involved, visit http://addictions.camdencounty.com/.