Cherry Hill buys Holly Ravine Farm property for $3.8 million to preserve as open space
The township rejected a developer's plan to build a residential complex for seniors on the property at Evesham and Springdale Roads.
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Cherry Hill has purchased the 23-acre Holly Ravine Farm for $3.8 million to preserve as open space.
A Texas-based developer had sought to build a senior housing facility on the site at Evesham and Springdale Roads last year, a plan the Cherry Hill zoning board rejected after a public outcry against the proposal.
“It will not be developed,” Mayor David Fleisher said Tuesday.
“Our first priority was to acquire and protect the property. This milestone has been achieved,” said Fleisher, a longtime township council president who was sworn in as mayor Jan. 2. “This is a big win for the people of Cherry Hill.”
A township news release quoted longtime Holly Ravine owner Robert Gilmour saying that his family “is thrilled that the legacy of Holly Ravine Farm will be preserved forever. We are confident that the township will be a good steward of the land and are happy to be part of creating a greener Cherry Hill.”
Eric Ascalon, who has fond memories of the “Cowtail Bar” dairy bar the Gilmour family operated on a portion of the property until a strip mall was developed there in the late 1980s, helped organize opposition to the senior housing development.
“It wouldn’t have been a good use of the property, and it would have been a shame to lose Holly Ravine,” he said. “Now the township can have something to be proud of there.”
Fleisher said the township “will be strategizing with community groups — such as our environmental board — to discuss attractive uses of the property [including] trails, environmental uses, or other passive uses.”
The mayor said that the purchase price was consistent with recent, independent third-party appraisals and that Cherry Hill can tap its open space trust fund and operating funds to buy the property.
The township also has the option to finance the purchase with the help of grants or other funding, he said.
“We are already in discussions with the county and state for funding,” Fleisher said. “This is an environmentally sensitive property at the intersection of two county roads, and I am hopeful that the county recognizes its significance and makes a meaningful investment.”
County Commissioner Jeff Nash said that Holly Ravine Farm represented a valuable opportunity and that the county is looking to working with the township on finding open space funds.
“There is a process that we have to follow,” Nash said. “But we do agree with the mayor that this [property] is worthy.”
Cherry Hill has preserved 1,372 acres of open space, including the Kingston Swim Club, Woodcrest Country Club, the Masonic Lodge, Chapel Avenue Park, and the Brunetti tract properties. Holly Ravine will boost the number of preserved acres to 1,395.
“Generations of Cherry Hill residents have such fond memories of the farm and now future generations will be able to make their own memories and share in this special open space,” said township council member Sangeeta Doshi.