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Vol. 6 – No. 52 ♦
The News Leader of the Pines
♦
FR EE
October 22 - October 28, 2022
HOW TO REACH US VIA EMAIL: NEWS@PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM • LETTERS@PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM • SALES@PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM
Redevelopment Agreement Approved for Long-Blighted Browns Mills Shopping Center Setting Timeline, Stipulations and $2.7M Property Sale Price
FOREST IRE
Project with Roughly $7.5M in ‘Hard Costs’ Entails Initial Demo of Strip Store Section, Site Remediation and Building Three Units By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer
annual fee for vehicle access to fish there), according to a news release disseminated at the end of August by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). Such a plan would “enhance the State Park Police’s ability to assess vehicle use and protect sensitive resources throughout the forest,” the release claims. To get the plan underway, the NJDEP conducted a “virtual stakeholder meeting”
PEMBERTON—Many residents and passerby’s took note this past weekend of a new “COMING SOON” sign recently installed at the corner of PembertonBrowns Mills, Trenton and Juliustown roads containing the most up-to-date architectural rendering for what is expected to become the brand-new Browns Mills Shopping Center comprising three main, separate units, replacing a delipidated structure of some 25,000 square feet and 17 storefronts, with only a handful of those storefronts currently occupied. Such signage has been some 27 years in the making, and after decades of much anticipation for the shopping center to be revitalized, as well as speculation, its appearance drew immediate inquiries. And you’d be right if you believed the signage was a sign of significant progress toward finally having the blighted shopping center, located in the center of Pemberton Township’s business district of Browns Mills, redeveloped. Pemberton Township Council, during its Sept. 7 meeting, approved a 44-page redevelopment agreement with New Horizon Properties, of Englishtown, for the Browns Mills Shopping Center at 100 PembertonBrowns Mills Road.
See FOREST/ Page 6
See REDEVELOPMENT/ Page 5
Photo By Douglas D. Melegari
Sign welcoming visitors to the Wharton State Forest.
A Proposal by the NJDEP to Develop a Permit System for Vehicles Using the Back Roads That Crisscross Wharton State Forest Has Given Rise to a Budding Resistance Movement, Led by Open Trails New Jersey and the 8th Legislative District’s Republican Lawmakers
By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer
WOODLAND—Signs are starting to pop up that the network of back roads that traverses a large swath of Woodland, Shamong and Washington townships could soon become the staging ground for a nascent resistance movement against the power of the state. Only in this case, the signs involved are literal ones that read (in capital letters): “NO PERMITS,” followed by “KEEP
WHARTON STATE FOREST ROADS OPEN,” with the logo of Open Trails New Jersey, or OTNJ, one of the chief concerns of which is maintaining access to the Pine Barrens. The signs also contain the slogan “tread lightly.” What OTNJ is referring to is the proposed development of a permit system for “use of unimproved roads throughout the forest” that is modeled on one now in operation at Island Beach State Park (which charges state residents a $195
INDEX Business Directory.....................................8
Marketplace..................................................... 10
Halloween Fun........................................ S1
Worship Guide............................................7
Local News.................................................2
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