The area in yellow represents 48 acres in Mount Laurel acquired by the Burlington County Board of County Commissioners in 2017 for recreational (athletics) space for Rowan College at Burlington County. Now the county wants to sell the former farm land. In orange is a vacant office building in Bishop's Gate Corporate Center that would be demolished to make way for a 507,353-square-foot warehouse, according to a Mount Laurel Planning Board decision.
Burlington County wants to sell 48 acres of former farmland on Leadenhall Road and Walton Avenue in Mount Laurel that it purchased in 2017 for $6 million as protected open space for recreational use.
The property's recreational use was planned to be athletics fields for sports teams at Rowan College at Burlington County, which is on the other side of Route 38. But the college in 2021 eliminated all athletics programs.
Now the county wants to sell the land — likely for development in the industrial zone in Bishop's Gate Corporate Center — and in turn commit to about 192 acres of open space on the former Burlington Community College campus in Pemberton, county representatives said on Monday at a public "scoping hearing" on the plans.
A major component of the plan includes the demolition of the county buildings on the Pemberton campus, David Levinsky, a county spokesman, confirmed after the meeting.
New Jersey Green Acres regulations require diversions of land such as the one proposed by the county to be on a four-to-one ratio: the new protected acreage must total at least four times as much as the acreage being put on the market, according to county officials at the hearing.
The Township is not interested in buying the land at 2501 Leadenhall Road for open space, Township Manager Meredith Riculfy told 70and73.com in an email.
"The anticipated value of the land is more than the Township has in Open Space funds," she wrote. "In order to purchase the land it would be a tax increase for residents."
A few Mount Laurel residents who live near the land attended the hearing to express concern that a warehouse will be built on the site, where a warehouse would be a permitted use under zoning regulations.
In December, the Township Planning Board approved demolishing a 376,122-square-foot office building, which is across Walton Avenue from the land the county wants to sell.
The property's developer, CNLI OMLNJ LLC, plans to build a 507,353-square-foot warehouse on the 41 acres with 108 loading docks, 106 tractor trailer spaces and 330 vehicle spaces.
Although the project was approved by the board in December, the adoption of the resolution authorizing the project has been delayed and was on the agenda for approval at the May 9 board meeting. However, the developer requested the adoption be postponed until the board's June 13 meeting.
