D&R Greenway seeks funds for key property

Down to the last $500,000 for St. Michael’s site in Hopewell Township

   The Willard T.C. Johnson Foundation has made a $1 million commitment to the preservation of St. Michael’s property in Hopewell Township, the Princeton-based D&R Greenway Land Trust announced.
   This leaves $500,000 in private funds yet to be raised in order to reach the $11 million total sale price for the property, according to the D&R Greenway.
   The $1 million will be donated only if D&R Greenway is successful in raising the remaining $500,000, however.
   The St. Michael’s property surrounds the Borough of Hopewell to the south and east and is composed of 337 acres of farm fields and woodlands.
   The land, known locally as the St. Michael’s property, has been owned by the Diocese of Trenton since the 1890s. The St. Michael’s Orphanage and Industrial School was built on the property in 1896. The facility closed in 1973, but the land remained open and undeveloped. Since then, the community had made several attempts to preserve the property, all without success. In 2004, the Diocese of Trenton approached D&R Greenway Land Trust with the project — and the $11 million sale price — to see if a financially viable preservation solution could be created as an alternative to development.
   Working with state, county and local partners: the New Jersey State Agricultural Development Committee, Mercer County, Hopewell Borough and Township and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program, D&R Greenway secured $8 million in public funding. To date, $2.5 million has been raised from private sources leaving a shortfall of $500,000.
   The 337-acre property encompasses 200 acres of open land and fields currently managed as farmland. Fallow fields and floodplains provide grassland, hedgerow and shrub land habitats for many species of birds.
   The remaining 137 acres consist of mature trees. The Bedens Brook and its four tributaries cross the property.
   Miles of trails could be created through the natural landscape and along stream corridors, for walking, horseback riding and nature study, according to the D&R Greenway, and St. Michael’s could, in time, become the hub for a regional trail network, linking to Princeton, Pennington and up into the Sourlands.
   For further information, contact D&R Greenway Land Trust, One Preservation Place, Princeton, NJ 08540, call (609)-924-4646 or go to www.drgreenway.org.