The Holly Ravine farmland purchased in January by Cherry Hill Township for open space is in the yellow border. The cutout area at Evesham and Springdale Roads was part of the dairy farm, but it was sold in 1987 by farmer and former Mayor John C. Gilmour Jr. and developed as the Shoppes at Holly Ravine. The 23-acre property has more than 1,000 trees and the Township is studying ways to use the property.
When Cherry Hill Township this year staged its last-minute rescue of the former Holly Ravine dairy farm from a developer's plan to clear the land for senior housing, the preservation of the 23 open acres was viewed as a coup in a municipality with little more green space to save.
"There aren't a lot of opportunities that size in Cherry Hill," Kathy Cullen, the Township director of community development, said of the $3,859,000 municipal purchase from the family that had founded the farm more than 100 years ago.
The Township on Tuesday evening has invited residents to a meeting to discuss the future direction of open space and recreation as part of an update to the Township Open Space and Recreation Plan that is being written. The 90-minute meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Cherry Hill Township Municipal Building, 820 Mercer Street.
Cullen told 70and73.com in an interview that town officials at the meeting will go over suggestions made by residents at a June 12 meeting and solicit more ideas for both open space and the types of recreation Cherry Hill should focus on in the future.
The Holly Ravine Dairy Farm, in the white border, in 1965 with farm buildings, including the Cow Tail Bar in the lower right of the property. The land for miles around was largely agricultural, with Woodcrest Country Club (now the Legacy Club) to the left of the property.
About 1,400 acres out of the total 15,400 acres in Cherry Hill have been preserved as open or recreation space, according to Township statistics. Of the amount set aside, more than 380 acres are in neighborhood or Township parks.
Recent saves also include the 4.6 acres formerly owned by the USS New Jersey Lodge No. 62 Free and Accepted Masons on Haddonfield Berlin Road, next to Route 295, and the former Kingston Swim Club property in the middle of one of Cherry Hill's older developments that became available after the club was dissolved.
What is likely among the largest contiguous open spaces in the Township is Springdale Farms, about two miles north on Springdale Road from Holly Ravine. The Township's last working farm, several times the size of Holly Ravine, has a year-round farm market and still is farmed by the same family that founded it 75 years ago.
Cullen said resident suggestions at the June meeting included building more courts for pickleball, the fast-growing paddle sport favored by senior citizens, many of whom have moved away from tennis or racquetball in favor of the relatively new game.
Others recommended improving existing parks, providing better access to parks and trails and adding more shade cover and trees at parks, she said. Some said the Township now should emphasize passive, rather than active, recreation.
"There were some great suggestions in there," Cullen told 70and73.com. The Township expects to draft the new recreation and open space plan over the summer.
Community advocate Martha Wright, a lifelong Cherry Hill resident, said she attended the June meeting and made recommendations that go beyond buying open space or adding recreational opportunities.
"We need to add a tree planting component to our open space element," Wright stated in her submitted suggestions. Wright pointed out that Cherry Hill is an older suburb and many of the trees are 50 years old and "not in great shape."
She also stated the need to consider the dark sky movement, which seeks to limit light pollution. "As we build out the open space element we need to consider the impact of illumination in our green space," she stated.
For the Holly Ravine property, no final decisions have been made about how to use it, and Mayor David Fleisher now is considering the different options, said Brian Bauerle, the mayor's chief of staff.
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