Council president: Cherry Hill tried to buy Holly Ravine farm; owners say Township offers too low.

This news article has been updated throughout with new information.

"Numerous negotiations" took place over the years as Cherry Hill Township tried to buy Holly Ravine farm, now slated for development.

But Township offers to acquire the property near Springdale and Evesham roads were rejected by the farm's owners, Township Council President David Fleisher said at Monday night's meeting.

"There was a very active negotiation over a period of time," said Fleisher, who noted much of the discussion came during the administration of former Mayor Chuck Cahn. "Unfortunately, the owners of the property rejected those offers, but the Township did try to purchase the property."

Developer Caddis Healthcare Real Estate is scheduled to go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment on May 4 with its application to purchase the 23 acres of land and build 175 independent- and assisted-living apartments for seniors.

Fleisher and other Council members were guarded in their comments and said they did not intend to interfere with the decision of the zoning board, which must rule on granting the developer a use variance to build in a residential zone, as well as height and other variances.

"Given that it is an active application, and a pending hearing, legally we as a body need to be very, very cautious about weighing in or commenting on that pending hearing. So, for anyone (from the public) who does make comments, please don't consider the lack of a more robust response of any form of disrespect or disinterest on the topic," Fleisher said.

More stories from 70and73.com, which broke the news on April 5:

• Development tug of war over plan to turn Holly Ravine Farm land into senior-living complex.
• How a developer plans to turn Cherry Hill's Holly Ravine Farm into housing for seniors.

Bonnie L. Gilmour on Tuesday morning posted to the Save The Holly Ravine Farm Facebook group with comments she said were on behalf of her 83-year-old father, Robert Gilmour, son of John and Eva Gilmour. Former Mayor John C. Gilmour Jr., who died in 1993, had a dairy farm on the land since the 1920s.

"As a family, we wanted to preserve the farm, so we contacted the New Jersey Farm Preservation Committee and worked with them for almost a year, but in the end, they decided our property did not fit their model to be a working farm," she wrote. "We then spoke with Cherry Hill Township and requested they preserve it and they said they weren't able to do so.

"After these two attempts at preservation failed, we put the property on the market," according to the post.

"Very quickly a buyer came to us with an offer to put 26 upscale retirement homes on the property. This offer met the Townships zoning requirements and would have left a large portion of the farm untouched. However, this offer was not acceptable to the Township because of the potential added traffic to the area. At that point the Township offered to buy the property for about one-third of the offer in hand. I’m sure most of you reading this would refuse to accept an offer for one-third the market value of your home."

Another family member, Kathy Ripple-Gilmour, posted on the Save The Holly Ravine page that the offer in the past from the Township was not to protect the property for green space, but to build a municipal building.

Fleisher, reached on Tuesday by 70and73.com, wrote in an email that he was not part of the Township's negotiations with Holly Ravine's owners, but that he did confirm "numerous attempts" to purchase with former Mayor Cahn.

"This is the first I'm hearing of any possible talk about (a) town hall. What I can tell you emphatically is that any council approvals to purchase land such as this would have been for open space — similar to council’s actions to preserve the Masonic Lodge site, Kingston Swim Club property, Woodcrest CC and others."

Community advocate Martha Wright, a Cherry Hill native and Munn Lane homeowner, lamented developers continuing to "pave over paradise."

Wright told Council members she imagines the developer has a purchase contract for the property that is contingent on getting zoning approval.

Wright mentioned the Saddlehill Winery being built across Evesham Road, in Voorhees, on preserved farmland and said the Holly Ravine farm could be preserved, with viniculture as a possibility.

"Money is green once," she told Council members. "Growing grapes or growing anything agricultural is green forever and creates a virtuous circle."

Added Wright: "I'm sure looking for a Hail Mary pass."

Council member Sangeeta Doshi told Council and the public that she lives near Holly Ravine and drives by it all of the time. Although she said her ability to comment is limited because of the zoning application, she called it a great space.

Resident Eric Ascalon, who lives on Owl Lane and started the Save The Holly Ravine Farm Facebook group, told Council he remembered in the mid-1970s when his parents told him they were moving from their home in Queens, New York.

"Eric," they told the boy. "We're moving to the country."

The "country" was a rapidly developing Cherry Hill and Ascalon said he had visions of the bucolic scene in a neighbor's Currier and Ives painting.

"When I got to Cherry Hill as a young boy, it was kind of like that," he said. 

As a child, he said a fond memory was chomping down on bubble-gum ice cream at the Holly Ravine's Cowtail Bar.

Later, in the late 1980s, he spoke against the farm's sale of the property on the corner of Evesham and Springdale, which now contains a CVS and Wawa.

An older man approached Ascalon after the meeting. "'Kid, don't worry about it'," Ascalon recalled the man said. "'They have to sell that portion of the farm in order to preserve the rest of it forever.' I remember those words."

Added Ascalon: "Well, forever is about 30 years, apparently. This farm is an institution in our community."

Ascalon said residents and Township leaders failed the community by not saving the property. 

"This application is a travesty," Ascalon said. "I hope it doesn't go through, but at the same time I feel so badly for the family (owners) and everything that they've gone through. They deserve to be compensated. This is a treasure. If this is developed, it's gone forever."