Gloucester County drafting master plan for regional growth

In 1982, when Gloucester County planners drafted a framework for growth, one-fifth of the county's land was considered developed - a statistic perhaps best reflected in a slogan that would become the county's mantra: "Close to everything, far from it all."

Three decades later, almost a third of the county is developed. The 330-square-mile county's population has increased by more than 90,000, to about 290,000. Its portion of Route 55 went from plan to pavement. Washington Township's population almost doubled.

If the planners are correct, more changes are coming.

That's why the county last month launched a "gc2040" campaign advertising an online survey aimed at gauging the needs of residents, as officials plan for more population and development growth over the next 25 years. With assistance - and a $125,000 grant - from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the county will update its 1982 master plan by next year.

"South Jersey and Gloucester has a real opportunity with this master plan to sort of get ahead" as improving economic conditions encourage development, said Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, a nonprofit that promotes smart growth. "South Jersey is going to face the same pressures North Jersey did."

The DVRPC has estimated that Gloucester County's population will grow about 30 percent by 2040, the highest percentage increase in the nine-county area analyzed by the commission, which includes the Pennsylvania suburban counties as well as Mercer County, N.J. Chester County just trails Gloucester County in terms of anticipated growth.

Gloucester County's survey, available through April, asks questions such as how much to prioritize conservation of farmland and open space, and what types of development should occur ("conventional suburban layout" or "transit-oriented development," for instance). More than 1,100 responses have been received.

The survey will help the commission and county lay out projected future land use and transportation infrastructure needs (such as the long-proposed light rail Glassboro-Camden line).

"This is the time when the community gets to say what they want to happen," said Emily Costello, a senior planner with the DVRPC's office of smart growth.

The updated plan, expected to be completed in mid-2016, allows for better regional planning, which helps the county present a strong showing to funders and investors, experts say. Ideally, the master plan is a guide for municipalities, which wield most land decision-making power.

In Woolwich Township, officials are working to update the master plan with a grant from the DVRPC. Woolwich ranks first among the municipalities forecast to experience the greatest percentage growth by 2040 in the nine counties.

Woolwich officials say they began to see what could have been a soil-to-subdivision fate beginning in the late 1990s, when developers began eyeing the then-agricultural township. The town quickly became one of the fastest-growing in the region; since 2000, its population has soared from 3,020 to more than 11,200.

"We went from being the tomato-growing capital of the world to growing a new school every year," said Matthew Blake, Woolwich's director of community development.

Town officials say they have spent the past several years combating sprawl - using local and state open-space dollars to preserve nearly 1,500 acres. They leveraged the construction slowdown during the recession to target land with proposed and previously approved development, derailing plans for more than 615 subdivision units.

"The township really didn't want to make the mistakes that other townships have," Blake said, citing traffic problems and costly services associated with poor planning.

Woolwich also launched a "transfer of development rights" program in 2008 - a measure that assigns credits to spaces designated for preservation, which are then purchased and applied to an area targeted for growth. Those areas typically allow higher-density construction.

While no credits have been purchased, the town is hoping that a recovering economy will allow the program to thrive. It is set to redirect development to a planned "regional center," a nearly 1,600-acre area bisected by Route 322 and accessible from Exit 2 of the New Jersey Turnpike. The town envisions the center as a combination of commercial, retail, and residential space. One developer has secured a Super Wal-Mart and other tenants.

The DVRPC's 2040 report predicts Woolwich's population will grow more than 125 percent in the next 25 years. In light of that, the effort to keep land open continues.

Next month, Woolwich is set to settle an agreement preserving a nearly 60-acre farm off Mill Road - land approved in 2005 for 31 single-family homes. Town officials brokered a deal with the current owner, Nate Russo, to pay more than $1.3 million to buy the development rights, with most of the funding from the town and county.

"It's an area where everything around it is in the farmland preservation," said Russo, owner of Swedesboro-based Russo Homes, which is working on several other area projects. Russo plans to sell the farm back to its previous owner, a farmer who will continue to use the land.

"It was a win-win for everybody," he said.

Maintaining a farming landscape is important to the community, which prides itself on its rich soil. Crops grown in town include soybeans and squash.

"Woolwich wants to keep the garden in Garden State," said Mayor Sam Maccarone, whose father and grandfather were both mayors and farmers.

He added, "Woolwich Township is a much different place than back when they were mayor."

Outside of Woolwich, many are committed to ensuring that the expected growth throughout the county - a population increase to about 376,000 in 2040, the DVRPC said - doesn't compromise Gloucester County's identity.

The county's preservation plans call for 1,000 acres to be preserved every year. This year, it expects to reach 20,000 acres of preserved land.

Freeholder Heather Simmons, who does public relations for Glassboro, noted the effort to revive the downtown in the borough and in other towns with traditional main streets. Redevelopment of those areas, she said, is one key strategy to working within the existing footprint.

Gloucester County "remains somewhat of an idyllic community," Simmons said. "We're interested in preserving that."