Razing of trees

[Teegate]

This is slightly out of the pines; however, does anyone know what is going on at the below link? They have buldozed hundred's of trees down in a pretty large area.

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.640330710772&lng=-74.72625732421875&z=13&type=m&gpx=

Guy

 

[turtle]

Guy,
That property has been for sale for quite some time now. A few weeks ago, I noticed the surveyors in there with orange flagging tape. And then bam! ~ everything is bulldozed with the exception of a few alianthus trees and scrubby weeds. I can't fathom them taking everything down..... more blueberry fields?
Even homes want some shade and a buffer from road noise.....
I think.....

 

[Teegate]

I would rather see blueberries than new homes.

Thanks for the info!

Guy

 

[46er]

Guy,
That property has been for sale for quite some time now. A few weeks ago, I noticed the surveyors in there with orange flagging tape. And then bam! ~ everything is bulldozed with the exception of a few alianthus trees and scrubby weeds. I can't fathom them taking everything down..... more blueberry fields?
Even homes want some shade and a buffer from road noise.....
I think.....

It's more efficient for a builder to take down everything, do his building and underground work and then replant. Unless your having just one home built, this is pretty much standard for a development.

And its not just for homes. You should have seen what was done when they built Jakes Branch CP in Ocean County. I thought they were putting in an airport.

 

[Spung-Man]

Guy,

This may just be the beginning. Nesco is designated as a Pinelands Growth Zone, and, like Richland Village, a candidate for a package sewer plant and redevelopment.



Excerpt from NJDEP 4/2009 Sewer Service Area (click to enlarge).

Spung-Man

 

[Teegate]

It is an odd spot for blueberries so it is always possible homes are going there. I actually was reaching for my camera and we all could see it but I failed to stop. It is long and deep.

Guy

 

[DeepXplor]

I doubt that it is for blueberries. The blueberry farmers that I know say they aren't making much money because of the imports. Ken Yates has blueberry farms all throughout the Tabernacle area, and he is turning a 25 acre plot into and 18 acre solar farm.

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Guy,

This may just be the beginning. Nesco is designated as a Pinelands Growth Zone, and, like Richland Village, a candidate for a package sewer plant and redevelopment.

View attachment 1651

Excerpt from NJDEP 4/2009 Sewer Service Area (click to enlarge).

Spung-Man

Spungman, can you explain what we're looking at on that map?

 

[Spung-Man]

Gabe,

The Department of State and Pinelands Commission has designated numerous Pinelands Villages as Smart Growth zones. The areas shown in yellow in my earlier post are examples of such zones. Smart Growth allows public-private partnerships to circumnavigate Pinelands rules through redevelopment.

http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/n...-to-help-pinelands-regional-growth-areas.html

This mechanism will probably cause Pinelands Villages like Mizpah, Dorothy, Newtonville, Weekstown. and Nesco to nearly double their current size with strip malls, housing projects, or industrial parks. Sewereing will make it profitable for a large developer to use up all our growth potential in perpetuity for a one-time bonanza. Richland Village is the Pinelands Commission's prototype, where CMP rules have been repeatedly ignored. Below is an excerpt from a 2009 request for proposal demonstrating what constitutes Smart Growth in rural Richland, which is totally out of Pinelands character. Click the thumbnail for full size.



Spung-Man

 

[Ben Ruset]

Nice to see you posting, S-M!

 

[Spung-Man]

Thanks Ben,

Many apologies for silent patches. I am working hard to fulfill obligations towards a PhD in Land-Surface Processes. I would much rather be reading and posting at this blog than assessing ambiguities of root mean square errors!

See the 2011 PPA State of the Pinelands report for a fresh critique of Richland Village, which Commissioner Ashmun recently termed a “rogue municipality.” This is the model community for Pine Barrens Smart Growth, and portends problems during other ventures. The track record is not enviable. Commissioners will probably find it similarly vexing to enforce CMP rules with other public development projects.

S-M

 

[turtle]

Perhaps it's a comination of both. A blueberry farmer putting in housing.... ? This sign went up earlier in the week.

 

[Teegate]

You may have just been correct that it was blueberries. Or it could be an office or even a store.

http://www.dimeofarms.com/

I bet it is their nursery.

Guy

 

[Spung-Man]

Turtle,

That is delightful news! Agricultural pursuits are certainly in accord with the Comprehensive Management Plan’s (CMP) spirit, and a blueberry enterprise will surely add sustainable, long-term cultural value to Nesco. Thank heavens it was not another strip mall. As stakeholders we must get ahead of the curve and become involved in the planning process at the local level, assuring that the inevitable growth in Villages will be in character of things Pine Barrens. Cultural and environmental standards contained in the CMP must not be waived or ignored, as they have been of late, so let the Pinelands Commissioners know you want them to uphold their sworn oath to protect this place. Otherwise, we may just get more of this:

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_d1157bde-b991-11e0-b529-001cc4c002e0.html

Yuk!
S-M

 

[Ben Ruset]

Thanks Ben,

Many apologies for silent patches. I am working hard to fulfill obligations towards a PhD in Land-Surface Processes. I would much rather be reading and posting at this blog than assessing ambiguities of root mean square errors!

Nice. I've just enrolled in Rider to finish up my B.A.

 

[Dragonfly Whisperer]

I would hope it wouldnt be housing. Many of these places are miles away from everything and I can't imagine it being "smart growth" to build there like that where folks would have to commute. My brother lives in Dorothy where you need 10 acres to build. However tho, they have a senior housing development that they nearly doulbed insize during the bubble years. Now if you look in the real estate, you'll find tons of these homes for sale at like $65,000-99,000.

I attended a "Smartgrowth NJ" convention in AC one year when I was in the Environmental Stewards class. It was scary what they were propsing. They see all this growth coming and spoke of 5 new casinos they dubbed "Borgata +10". However many have pulled out, the only one being built is Revel and a scaled down version at that. My husband just was laid off from Ballys this month after 10 years of service, and there are more layoff to come. The only thing I think will bring jobs and people to the area is the Next Gen project out here at the airport. That is definately happening and the road updates are taking place now as well. And like was mentioned above, one land owner bulldozed a large parcel of land flat. We though something was being built, only to see a for sale sign go up once the trees were gone. No one is buying tho, and now it is a field of invasive species that filled in. The properties across the street and next to it are also for sale. Not gonna be a pretty sight I am sure.

Raven

 

[Spung-Man]

D-W,

You mention the Pinelands Village of Dorothy. I’m afraid that Dorothy’s core is deemed as “Smart Growth” worthy, along with the core zone of adjoining Estell Manor. The combined parcels dwarf Richland Village’s bounds. Private and public planners can quietly circumvent Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) rules through invoking “redevelopment.” Our money is being used to hatch Pinelands “economic-growth” schemes, setting up supporting infrastructure like package sewerage plants, sidewalks, and train stations. As envisioned, developers could receive a ten-year tax abatement for their efforts to “grow smart” in Pinelands Villages. Governor Christie’s task force slammed these tax abatements, suggesting they “yield opportunities for cronyism in the selection of developers and specifically notes the redevelopment-related convictions of former mayors of Asbury Park, Hoboken and Marlboro.”

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100819/NEWS01/8190312/State-report-slams-tax-abatements​

The referred-to State Comptroller’s thirty-page report is titled A Programmatic Examination of Municipal Tax Abatements and makes for interesting reading for those who wish to know more.

www.nj.gov/comptroller/news/docs/tax_abatement_report.pdf​

I’ve attached a rough composite map of the planned Dorothy-Estell Manor Growth Area along a Tuckahoe Road – Cape May Avenue corridor and added a Richland Village insert for scale comparison.

​

There are various taxpayer-funded proposals for Richland Village phases, these described as West Village, East Village, North Village, and the Smith Road Extension. In addition to about +$4-million already spent in the name of Richland redevelopment, a planned sewer plant and proposed street work should top an additional $4-million each. When the economy wakes up, the pressure to grow these communities will be tremendous. Our governing bodies will have with taxpayers’ money paved the road for the gentrification of the Villages,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentrification​

which I suggest is opposite the Pinelands Commission’s goal to preserve, protect, and enhance the cultural resources of the Pinelands National Reserve. We should ask who is privy to this stealthy planning process and who really gains from it?

S-M

 

[woodjin]

This is slightly out of the pines; however, does anyone know what is going on at the below link? They have buldozed hundred's of trees down in a pretty large area.

http://maps.njpinebarrens.com/#lat=39.640330710772&lng=-74.72625732421875&z=13&type=m&gpx=

Guy

Guy, I am surprised that you described Nesco as "slightly out of the pines" Nesco is about as in the pinebarrens as a town gets.

 

[Teegate]

The location where this is at is "slightly out of the pines" if you stand there and look around Across the street you could be out west with the cows, and the house next door makes it urban.

Guy

 

[Spung-Man]

Pinelands: Sewer plants OK – Package sewer plants allowed in villages

by Gabe Donio, Gazette Staff Writer

http://www.hammontongazette.com/Weekly file/news1.html​

"Building small community wastewater plants would allow the villages to develop, Leaken wrote, adding the Pinelands Commission viewed facilitating such development as an 'obligation.'"​

Now the Pinelands Commission admits in this article its obligation to sewer the Villages. The Oxford English Dictionary indicates an obligation is "compulsory, not optional." I'm sure the term was carefully chosen. As these economic development initiatives come to light, they have been proving themselves unpopular. Local politicians now wish to be seen as "rural character" preservationists:

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_2a476744-e575-11e0-821c-001cc4c002e0.html​

"Buena Vista candidates Renart, Barber, both seek to preserve the township's rural character."​

The Pinelands model community for all others, Buena Vista Township's Richland Village, is currently projected to have a 92,000-gallon-per day or "build-out" capacity "to support [the] 192 acre village concept" (ACUA meeting summary, 01.09.09). This is about the same size of Woodbine's 2006 package sewerage plant (see $3M. sewerage plant sitting unused in Woodbine, Press of Atlantic City, December 3, 2009, A1). Under current plans the Pinelands Commission is obligated to (must) bring "restaurants, retail shopping, residential development and schools" to its Villages, forever changing their rural character through public funding.

S-M