Residential and commercial construction is affecting the natural resources on the border of Mansfield and Bordentown townships.
By: Eve Collins
MANSFIELD A group of township residents is continuing the fight to save the watershed area that straddles the Mansfield and Bordentown border.
The Tallon family has lived on Axe Factory Road, near the border of Mansfield and Bordentown townships, for 50 years.
Bob Tallon and Terri Tallon-Hammill, children of Dr. Marion Tallon, a Mansfield school board member, grew up playing in the woods surrounding Crystal Lake and in the lake itself. In the past few years, they have seen the peaceful environment they grew up in go through some drastic changes.
Three major developments are being constructed across the border in Bordentown Township. The Central Crossings Business Park project with four warehouses totaling 1.68 million square feet, the Meadow Run development with 164 homes, and The Grande at Crystal Lake development with 255 homes all are being constructed near the lake.
"I would bet that 95 percent of the people in this township have never set foot there," Mrs. Tallon-Hammill told members of the Mansfield Township Committee at its meeting Feb. 25.
The family has appealed to several local commissions for assistance on the issue and has contacted officials with the state Department of Environmental Protection, Burlington County Soil Conservation, and even the governor’s office, to alert officials to what the construction has been doing to the area.
The lake, which once was 3 or 4 feet deep they said, now is only a few inches deep.
Mrs. Tallon-Hammill, who works at Thomas Edison State College, says her propertya meadow where she raises horses and chickensis covered in silt.
Dr. Tallon lives just a few houses down on Axe Factory Road.
The area around the lake is alive with plants and animals, some of them endangered, including a pair of bald eagles that has been seen nesting and foraging for fish. While the companies were told by officials to create a 300-foot buffer to give the eagles some room, the Tallons say that restriction is not being observed.
"The developments have severely damaged Bordentown and Mansfield’s pristine natural resources," Dr. Marion Tallon told Mansfield officials last month.
Among other suggestions, Mrs. Tallon-Hammil, a member of the township zoning board, said the municipality needs to concentrate more on an open space preservation program.
Among her concerns is a 375-acre parcel, located on Route 130 near the Bordentown Township border, which has been slated for 690 houses as part of The Grande development.
Last October, county and township officials announced that the freeholders started negotiations with E’town Properties Inc. of Westfield, the owners of the property. Mrs. Tallon-Hammill encouraged members of the governing body to continue with their efforts to get that land preserved.
"I’m asking you to please pursue keeping that area as open space to keep the Mansfield Township side of the watershed," she said.
The residents got a response, after county and state officials issued stop-work orders on all three developments Feb. 23, stating the developers were not in compliance with soil erosion and sediment controls.
Brian Wilson, of Burlington County Soil Conservation, said workers on each site are cooperating with officials and are working to bring the site up to compliance. Meadow Run workers have been back to work since a few days after the orders were issued, he said, having corrected their problem.
The Central Crossings Business Park site will probably be stopped the longest, he said, as workers there have to construct three detention basins that prevent soil erosion.
Mr. Wilson couldn’t say how long it would be before work on the warehouses and at The Grande could continue. "It’s up to them and the weather," he said.
Officials would continue to check on the sites, he said.
In Bordentown, members of the Township Committee said township officials have been out to the sites to check up on the developments. At the Central Crossings Business Park especially, officials have been asking workers to keep up with soil buildup on the roads, according to Committeeman George Chidley.
"Nobody wants soil erosion and runoff," he said.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Tallon-Hammill and her family plan to keep pushing local officials, and planned to go before the Mansfield Township Committee again at the meeting scheduled to be held last night (Wednesday) after the Register-News went to press.