May 17, 2007
Vogelson Library, Voorhees, NJ
Meeting Room B
Present
Bob Paradise Chair
Jim Gullo
Nate Davis
Stewart Clamen
Jack Sworaski
Barry Wolff
John Boyle
Steve Wittig
Camden County Open Space Presentation Plan – Jack Sworaski
Open Space Plan is part of the county master plan most of the Greenway system follows stream corridors. The is a goal of 20,000 Acres of preserved open spec throughout the entire county.
Proposed Statewide Ballot Question - ACR10 Amends Constitution to dedicate up to $175 million annually from FY2009 to FY2038 of State revenue or resources for preservation of open space, including flood prone or affected areas and lands protecting water supplies, for farmland preservation and soil and water conservation, and for historic preservation.Currently there is little support in the legislature at this point. You can contact your legislators in the Assembly to support ACR10 at http://www.njleg.
Largest purchase to date is Stafford Farm in Voorhees - 140 acres. Seventy acres consisted of land sold by the county as deed restricted farmland and the 70 Acres of woodland are owned outright by the township.
Camden Greenways – Jack also gave some updates on the Camden Greenway network. which begins at 130 and the Golf Range to the Camden Waterfront along Newton Creek, the Admiral Wilson Blvd trail behind the Pub is owned by DRPA but want to turn it over to the County.
Missing link between the Admiral Wilson Path and the Golf Range is behind the parking area at the Pub. There is a bridge over Chandlers Run behind the pub from Kaighn Ave to the Hess Building.
Camden Greenways has been working with Campbell’s Soup who is developing it’s new headquarters at the old Sears Building. Campbell’s official officials do not want them going through their complex but they will be allowed to place the trail through the adjacent office complex.
Gibbsboro may be the model for municipal trail development, Mayor Ed Campbell has been a driving force in creating multi-use paths and nature trails throughout the borough.
Mr. Sworaski concluded with the county applying for a $20,000 grant to create a regional bicycle and multi-use trail Plan for Berlin, West Berlin, Clementon, Voorhees, Gibbsboro, Stratford, Somerdale. It was noted that the proposed Atlantic Avenue bikeway will not be built anytime soon because the project has to be broken into smaller municipal level projects.
Chair SJ Tour De Farms – 10, 26, 62 mile through Burlington County farms. Burlington County Freeholders SJRSD.org Sept. 8.
Ben Franklin Bridge Update - Open to 11, just 8 clock waiting for more info for the board.
Haddonfield TAPS – Stewart Clamen, Steve Wittig – The bicycle subcommittee has a proposed loop through the borough of Haddonfield. A proposed route has been drafted. A final revision of the route involved the decision to take the route across Ellis St. John Boyle rode that portion of the route. After some discussion it was decided that the Traffic was too fast on Ellis St and that the upper portion of the loop will be detoured over to Kings Highway (Haddonfield’s Main St) until significant traffic calming improvements are made.
Next steps include finding money for signs and to investigate the upgrading of bicycle unsafe inlet grates.
Voorhees Twp. Bicycle Pedestrian Committee – Jim Gullo
The township will be repaving and restriping the bike lanes Cooper Rd over the summertime. Cooper is an important route parallel to Haddonfield-
Town Picnic and the Bicycle Committee will have table tent June 3 Dutch Mill Road Lyons Lake
The last meeting included a discussion with Gibbsboro Ed Campbell who is coordinating trail connections between Gibbsboro and Voorhees.
Echelon Town Center road improvements may include extending the bike lanes on Somerdale Rd out to the intersection at Burnt Mill Rd.
John asked Jim is he could give us a mileage count for bike lanes in the township.
Other Business – John plans on meeting with Township Committee member Ed Devinney of Delanco Township to discuss trails planned for the township.
Scudder Falls Bridge - John met with the Ewing Township Environmental Advisory Committee on the Scudder Falls Bridge, the Bicycle Coalition will draft a letter of support for the committee to review.
Mercer Bike Plan Bicycle Pedestrian Committee – This is the first official county bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee in the DVRPC region outside of Philadelphia. An organizational meeting is planned in June.
Discussion continues on connecting bikeways in Haddonfield, Cherry Hill and Voorhees. The common thread may be that the townships outsource their engineering work to the same firm.
NJ Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Comment Period for the DVRPC Region (Mercer, Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties)
http://www.dvrpc.
The TIP is the list of priority transportation projects “in the pipeline” for the region, for the most part the rule is “If its not on the TIP then it’s not getting built in the near future.”
Select your county for a list of projects and then send in your comments via email, tip-plan-comments@
A good suggestion is to look at a project that is to pick projects close home or on roads that you ride on and make a recommendation to include bicycle improvements with the selected project.
Note: The TIP Comment Period for the South Jersey TPO Region (Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May) will begin in June.
Next Meeting – Tentatively set for June 21nd 6:30PM in Room B at the Vogelson Library in Voorhees.
For more information go the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia website.