NORTHERN BURLINGTON: Route 206 development moves ahead

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
Four years in the making, a development plan for Route 206 is nearing completion after receiving tentative approval from the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders last week.
    Titled the “Northern Burlington County Growth and Preservation Plan,” the non-binding, 136-page document is meant to help municipalities in Northern Burlington County plan development and land preservation in the area along the road and avoid sprawl.
    According to a press release, it “(provides) each municipality with a framework for addressing land use, housing, economic development, transportation, agriculture, recreation, redevelopment and other issues in the 148,383-acre region.”
    The plan holds recommendations for 13 towns, including Bordentown City, Bordentown Township, Chesterfield, Fieldsboro, Mansfield, New Hanover, North Hanover and Springfield.
    The freeholders approved the plan Jan. 7, and it will go before the steering committee, made up of four representatives from each town, for final review and approval.
    The freeholders then will seek official approval from each municipality involved, typically in the form of a resolution.
    “The theme of it is what we call ‘town and country,’ which is to preserve open space, farmland and rural character and to place development and growth in key locations, like villages, hamlets and town centers,” said county Director of Economic Development and Regional Planning Mark Remsa.
    He said the plan describes “where development should go, and where preservation should occur.”
    Local recommendations include creating a Transfer of Development Rights program in Mansfield, which Mr. Remsa said would mean “open space and farmland (would) be preserved and development transferred into an expanded Columbus Village.
    “This document is also based on a lot of other background documents, and it does look at existing development patterns,” he continued.
    One example is the plan for Springfield, which calls for it to remain rural, with one exception.
    “There’s something unique to Springfield; that’s what we’re calling a node — a concentration of use,” Mr. Remsa said.
    In this case, that means the proposed 640-acre site of the County Fairgrounds, which he said is included in the document.
    The plan recommends growth be concentrated in particular spots along Route 206, “not stringing it along the corridor.”
    That means concentrating development in Bordentown and in Columbus at routes 206 and 38.
    “We work on that theme of preserving the rural countryside and looking to concentrate development where it makes the most sense,” Mr. Remsa said.
    More than 21,000 of the 28,000 acres of preserved farmland in the county is located in the “farm belt” region, according to a press release. Data in the report indicates the area could see a 19 percent increase in housing units between the years 2000 and 2035, from 29,843 to 39,364.
    “The question isn’t whether that number is good or bad, it’s how you plan for it,” Mr. Remsa said in the release.