Evesham Township trying to buy former Barton Run Swim Club property for protected open space.

Evesham Township is negotiating with the owner of the former Barton Run Swim Club on Lakeside Drive to buy the property for open space and a park.

Developer Orleans has filed an application with the Township to build six new homes on the property, but a public hearing on the plan scheduled for next Thursday's Planning Board meeting has been moved to the June meeting.

"The Township submitted a funding application to the NJ Green Acres Program in February which, if approved, would pay for up to half of the acquisition," Zane Clark, Evesham public information director, told 70and73.com in an email.

The Barton Run Swim Club purchase is one of a few acquisitions the Township is pursuing to add to its open space inventory. 

Township Council on Wednesday approved on first reading an ordinance to take over 13.74 wooded and undeveloped acres at 169 Dutch Road. The Township owns other open space near the property.

The acreage is less than a half mile from the Dutch Road and Route 73 site where a developer may build affordable housing apartments in a controversial partial solution to Evesham's affordable housing commitment.

Elisa Tractman Lewis, executor of the estate of Harriett Lynn Tractman, "has offered to donate the property to the Township to be used as open space or active or passive recreation," according to the Dutch Road ordinance, which is scheduled for a Council public hearing on May 6 and final adoption.

Meanwhile, the state recently gave its approval for the Evesham Township School District to sell 18 acres at 125 Greenbrook Drive — Country Farms Field — to  the Township for permanent preservation, Clark reported.