Author: Lacey Latch

Nearly two years after Chesterfield Township approved a plan to build a warehouse on a shuttered golf course, construction still has not begun.

The Old York Country Club was purchased by New Jersey-based real estate developer Active Acquisitions in 2022 with plans to build at least one warehouse totaling up to about 1.1 million square feet, according to the redevelopment agreement. The project currently includes plans for a single building, but a second warehouse could be permitted — with the two buildings totaling up to 1.3 million square feet — if it were to be dedicated to cannabis cultivation or manufacturing, according to the township.

Four years later, the developers are still working to obtain the final approvals and permits needed to start construction at 228 York Rd., with hopes to finally break ground early next year, Active Acquisitions founder Seth Gerszberg said.

The developers have not identified a tenant for the future site, but Gerszberg said that regardless of who moves in, the property will operate as a traditional warehouse or logistics center with large trucks coming and going from the building throughout the day.

The anticipated work at the 156-acre property was approved in November 2024 and comes more than six years after the township designated the site as an “area in need of rehabilitation” in May 2020.

The sprawling golf course closed in 2021 in part due to pandemic-era drops in revenue and memberships. In the years since, the township’s redevelopment efforts have drawn some public pushback.

Following the initial approval of a redevelopment plan for the site in October 2022, a neighborhood group called Save Old York filed a lawsuit against the township. While it was ultimately dismissed in court, the lawsuit argued that the redevelopment plan did not conform to the township’s master plan and amounted to “spot zoning” from agricultural to commercial.

But Chesterfield administrator George Jackson, who began working in the township in 2024, argues that the project presents a rare opportunity for the township to welcome a new taxpayer with deep pockets.

Much of Chesterfield’s 21 square miles is preserved farmland that is unable to be developed, Jackson said, which significantly limits new commercial development opportunities. The tax rates for preserved farmland are also much lower than the rates for residential or commercial properties, he said.

“You need the balance in your ratables,” Jackson said of the township’s tax base. The warehouse “could take some of the burden off of our residential taxpayers.”

In a town with a municipal budget of roughly $6.7 million in 2026, the potential yearly tax revenue generated by the new warehouse is expected to be around $2 million — roughly 30% of the total budget, he said.

“Our opportunities to increase our tax base are very, very limited, and this is an opportunity to really increase it dramatically,” he said.

As the developers work to secure an end user for the future warehouse, both Gerszberg and Jackson emphasized that the one thing they know for sure is that it won’t be an Amazon fulfillment center.

The redevelopment agreement specifically prohibits that type of warehouse use on the site, while also requiring that vehicles exiting the property make a left turn onto Old York Road in an effort to keep truck traffic out of the center of town, Jackson said.

Additionally, the site’s location about a half mile from Route 206 and adjacent to two existing warehouses across the street make it “a prime location for warehouse development,” Jackson said.

“The township went through some great measures to ensure that it doesn’t turn into a big commercial trucking route in certain areas of the township,” he said. “They want that traffic to go out to the highway.”

Some Burlington County residents might see an unfamiliar blue shuttle bus on the roads next week as the region welcomes its first new public transit option in more than two decades.

The new route will officially start service on Sept. 21, the last of six new shuttle lines that form SJ Connects, a free bus service run by the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA). The first five lines were launched on June 1 while the transportation authority worked to get formal authorization to operate in the county.

Together, the shuttles can take riders from Cape May Court House to as far north as Palmyra with connections to other shuttles, SJTA routes, NJ Transit lines, and more sprinkled throughout.

Though the newest route is called the Burlington County Shuttle, it technically begins over the Camden County line at the Pennsauken Transit Center before concluding 10 stops later at Twosome Drive and Church Street in Moorestown.

Along the new route, up to 20 riders per bus can hop on or off at various locations including the Cinnaminson ShopRite, Fox Meadow Apartments in Maple Shade, or at Cooper University Healthcare’s Moorestown Mall location.

Stretching from early morning to late evening, the shuttles will make a total of five visits to each of the stops along the route throughout the day.

The first shuttle leaves from the Pennsauken Transit Center at 7 a.m. with the final drop-off scheduled for 8:11 p.m., according to the SJTA schedule. A full schedule for the Burlington County shuttle is available online.

SJ Connects received $5 million in state funding from former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration for an 18- to 24-month trial run to boost transit services in the region.

The investment was secured in part thanks to the efforts of state Sen. Troy Singleton, a longtime Burlington County resident who called the county “the crown jewel of South Jersey.”

“Burlington County is the largest county by land mass here in New Jersey and being able to connect what was a lot of former farmland to economic and educational opportunities is critically important,” Singleton said during a ride-along of the new route Monday.

“We know that there’s enormous economic opportunity here in South Jersey as it connects to Philadelphia and connects to other parts of New Jersey so continuing that investment is one of my responsibilities that I take really personal,” he said.

Many of the stops along the SJ Connects routes were chosen to help South Jersey residents travel between medical centers, educational institutions, and other areas of interest, said Stephen Dougherty, SJTA’s executive director.

The half-dozen routes include stops at multiple Cooper and Inspira locations in addition to the region’s various community colleges and universities. The routes also have stops located at or near large employers, Dougherty said, including Logan Township’s Pureland Industrial Complex, the second largest industrial park east of the Mississippi River.

“We know that these routes are crucial — based on the nature of what these stops are — to people’s everyday lives,” Dougherty said.

Now that all six of the SJ Connects shuttles are ready for riders, local leaders are simply asking South Jersey residents to hop on for a ride.

The more demand there is for this service in Burlington County, the more likely it will be for legislators to get state funding to keep the rides free and create more routes in the future, Singleton said.

“My hope and my ask of the public is to utilize this free resource — their tax dollars coming to their benefit — in order for us to try and expand it even more,” Singleton said.

As concerns about surveillance cameras mount nationwide, Shamong Township is taking steps to limit the use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers.

Shamong Mayor Michael Di Croce introduced an ordinance Tuesday that would establish a one-year moratorium on automated license plate readers and other vehicle surveillance technology on township rights-of-way and on township-owned property.

Flock cameras capture the license plates and other vehicle features, like bumper stickers or dents, of each passing car and compiles them into a searchable database.

“Flock cameras basically create a surveillance system for people who have done nothing wrong,” Di Croce said at Tuesday’s township committee meeting.

“I am opposed and I hope that my fellow committee members will agree that we don’t need to create another surveillance system that tracks people and where they’re going,” he said, noting that location data is already collected through E-ZPass and cell phone GPS.

“We should not create a permanent or searchable record of where law-abiding residents drive merely because they happen to pass a government camera or in the case of Flock, private-entity cameras,” he said.

Di Croce also referenced recent high-profile issues surrounding Flock cameras including law enforcement misuse and system errors that led to a driver who was wrongfully pulled over and detained at gunpoint as even more reason to be wary of the technology.

“I’m not opposed to technology that helps the police solve crimes,” Di Croce said. “I’m opposed to turning Shamong into a surveillance community without demonstrating that the benefits outweigh the cost, violating our privacy implications with the potential for misuse and the loss of local control over our residents’ data.”

Shamong is not alone in its concerns about the use of surveillance technology.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has “real concerns” about Flock cameras and is open to considering a statewide ban on the technology, a spokesperson said this week.

In Montgomery County last month, Abington police decided not to renew their contracts with Flock after thousands of the department’s searches were leaked.

The ordinance is “just a statement that we don’t want these cameras in Shamong and we’re not going to have them on any township property,” Di Croce said.

Residents can weigh in on the proposed ordinance before the committee votes on its adoption on Oct. 6 at the Shamong Municipal Building.

One of Burlington County’s most popular public libraries is getting a major upgrade — its first in nearly three decades.

The Evesham Library in Marlton, part of the Burlington County Library System (BCLS), will be getting a new technology center and expand its children’s area and activity/meeting room as part of the $500,000 project.

“The improvements planned for the Evesham library will allow it to better serve residents of all ages and become an even greater resource for the community,” Burlington County Library Commission Chair Jonathan Chebra said in a statement announcing the effort.

Renovations are underway and expected to wrap up by the end of the year, the county said.

The library, which opened in 1998 as part of Evesham Township’s new municipal building complex, will remain open for visitors during the renovations.

The Evesham branch is the second most-used location in the BCLS, the county said, recording more than 215,390 checkouts in 2025. The Evesham location also has the second-highest active library users in the BCLS with nearly 10,000 active accounts.

“Evesham is Burlington County’s most populous municipality, so it’s absolutely essential that it continue to have a state-of-the-art library to serve the town and the surrounding communities,” Burlington County Commissioner Tom Pullion, liaison to the BCLS, said in a statement.

Half the funding for the project came from a $1 million state grant for capital improvements to the BCLS as part of the New Jersey’s 2023 budget. The library system matched the remaining $250,000 for the renovations in Evesham, the county said.

Burlington County’s main library branch in Westampton and the libraries in Pemberton and Cinnaminson will share the rest of the state funding, according to the county.

Pemberton branch’s renovation wrapped earlier this year and work on the Cinnaminson library is expected to finish in the fall, the county said. Meanwhile, renovations at the main branch in Westampton are still in the early stages of planning and design.

“Burlington County’s libraries are proven difference-makers and the investments we make to improve them directly benefit our residents and communities,” Burlington County Commissioner Randy Brolo said in a statement.