Proposal for Open Space at Bancroft Stirs Interest

If anything was clear at Tuesday night’s borough commissioners meeting about the future the Bancroft site will have in Haddonfield, it’s that nothing is clear. 

About two and a half hours of a three-hour public meeting covered the possible costs of the borough’s possible purchase of the near 19-acre site for recreational and open space uses.

Repeatedly, each of the three commissioners said no decision has been made on how the land would be used if it is purchased by the borough. That purchase is far from a certainty, all agreed. No firm price has been mentioned and Bancroft officials have made no commitment to sell the land either to the borough or to a private developer.

“I don’t have a crystal ball but it’s very likely Bancroft might stay here,” said Commissioner Jeffrey Kasko. “Our plans don’t force them to leave.”

Officials at Bancroft, a center for people with developmental disabilities, have spoken publicly for the last decade about the need to update its aging facilities, possibly by selling the land it has occupied for the past 128 years and finding another location.

Newark attorney Edward J. McManimon III presented a cost analysis that covered only one possible use of the property, dedicating it to improved athletic fields adjacent to Haddonfield Memorial High School and to a less structured Green Acres area. If the borough purchased the land, at a cost estimated by McManimon at $12 million, with a contribution from Camden County’s Green Acres budget, future residential or commercial use would be barred on almost the entire tract.

Commissioner Edward Borden said he has received no commitment from Camden County that funds would be allocated to the project. If the town buys the property, it would have to arrange the construction of 10 homes for low-income families on the site. Another 10 homes would be built elsewhere on borough-owned land, to comply with regulations of the Council on Affordable Housing.

A second option for Bancroft is to sell to a developer who, under current zoning laws, could build 26 single-family homes. While those homes would generate tax revenue, they also would most likely cause a boost in the borough’s school enrollment, Kasko pointed out.

With an analysis based on compromises between purchase, demolition, and development costs, along with an estimated—but not guaranteed or even promised—$3 million contribution in Camden County funds, McManimon said the price of the open space proposal for residential taxpayers would increase an average of $271 per year until a 20-year bond would be paid off. That figure was based on current tax rates and interest rates.

The typical home in Haddonfield has an assessed value of $491,000 and has a tax bill of about $12,000.

Bancroft pays no taxes and received services from the borough valued at $101,000 last year.

Some of the 20 or so residents attending the meeting objected to the inclusion of high-end projects in the proposal, including the installation of a turf field for school athletic competitions. Commissioner Kasko and Mayor Tish Colombi both said that fields now used by students are over-worked and hard to maintain because they are in play almost all year for several sports. Colombi said the football stadium is “deplorable.”

School board president Steve Weinstein attended the meeting but did not comment. Commissioners said the board of education has not made any public statement about purchasing some of the Bancroft property.

Resident Joe Haro directed the commissioners’ to promises they to improve the borough library. “What happened to the priority of (dedicating) $6 million for the library? You promised us a new library when you campaigned. How can we afford both?” Haro asked.

“It’s a policy and a political decision,” responded Kasko. “The tax implications are a burden. It would force people to leave their homes and this town.”

Kasko said he hoped a referendum would be put to voters in 2012 about improvements or replacement of the library.