Crystal Lake site slated for park

By: Cara Latham
   MANSFIELD — The county plans to buy the township’s 380-acre Crystal Lake site by the end of the month and incorporate it into its park system.
   The county has been trying to acquire the site, located off Axe Factory Road, for several years, said Loretta O’Donnell, the Burlington County freeholders spokeswoman.
   The property includes diverse terrain and a 10-acre lake. It is heavily wooded along the south side of the lake, and comes with a trail network, she said.
   "This has been one of our big goals for quite some time," Ms. O’Donnell said Wednesday. "It is exciting. It’s our second largest purchase."
   The largest open space purchase was a 640-acre sod farm in Springfield purchased by the county in 2003, she said.
   "We’re trying to buy as much property as we can because the developers are buying properties as well, and the longer you wait, the less opportunities there are," said Ms. O’Donnell.
   The freeholders plan to purchase the site from E’Town Properties Inc., a subsidiary of the American Water Works Co. The purchase is still subject to completion of contract terms, according to a county press release.
   The county had previously introduced a bond ordinance to cover the $14.8 million purchase price. Fifty percent of the cost is expected to be reimbursed by the State Green Acres Program, and the remainder of the bonded cost will be paid off with future funds from the county’s dedicated fund for farmland preservation, open space and park development, the press release stated.
   The site had previously received township approval for 660 residential units, and the developer had been pursuing extension of sanitary sewer service to accommodate development of about 100 affordable housing units as part of the subdivision, the press release stated.
   Mansfield Mayor Arthur Puglia called the acquisition of the site for open space a "big gain" for the township.
   "It was a great thing for Mansfield Township, for the county and state to purchase this property," he said on Tuesday. "It’s an improvement and makes Mansfield a much nicer place to live."
   As for the development and affordable housing units that were approved for the site, Mayor Puglia said there are other plans for affordable housing within the township, including a project known as Freedom America, located off Petticoat Bridge Road, which will house disabled residents.
   He said that residents were "very happy, unbelievably happy," with the county’s acquisition.
   Ms. O’Donnell said the county’s plan is to connect the trails in the Crystal Lake site with two other trail projects — the cross-county Kinkora Rails to Trails project, which runs east to west along the abandoned Kinkora rail line, and the Delaware River Heritage Line, which runs north to south from Bordentown to Palmyra.
   "In the long term, the plan for the regional park systems includes connecting these trails with those other trail systems," she said.
   Right now, the lake at the park will be used for fishing, or for kayaking or canoeing, but Ms. O’Donnell said that the county doesn’t plan to allow motorized boats on the lake.
   "If we were going to have, for example, to develop a dock or something to that effect, we would have to get approval from the DEP," she said. "That’s not in the immediate plan."
   The site also has farms and fields and could be used for playing ball, kite flying and having picnics, she said.
   She said county officials are also excited because most of the county’s other parks are farther south along the Rancocas Creek, and this will provide a park for residents in the northwestern part of the county.