February 24, 2025
An ordinance to broaden the Township’s Agricultural-Horticultural Commercial (AHC) Overlay Zone was advanced by the Cherry Hill Planning Board on Tuesday and returned to the Township Council for further action.
At the Township Council meeting on March 10, the ordinance will now be discussed on a second reading.
In order to apply for state and county open space preservation grants and maintain their farms, owners of highly sought-after farmland in the Township are keeping a careful eye on the expansion.
Cherry Hill Mayor David Fleisher originally presented the law at the February 10 Council Meeting, describing it as an additional effort to increase the Township’s open space farming preservation acreage.
The law promotes the preservation of active farming in the Township and grants the right to farm as an allowed use.
The AHC zone will be expanded to encompass the following properties if the ordinance is approved: McNaughton’s Garden Center at 351 Kresson Road; Springdale Farm at 1638 Springdale Road; Springhouse Farm at 1631 Springdale Road; and 200 Evans Lane, an empty lot on 8.31 acres. The four properties would expand the zone by 248 acres when combined.
According to a statement released following the Council meeting on February 10, this ordinance formalizes the current agricultural and horticultural uses of these sites and will allow the property owners to seek for future farmland preservation money.
“The land is not eligible for state or county farmland preservation funding without the official overlay,” Fleisher continued.
In a recent interview with the Sun Papers, Tom Measey, manager of McNaughton’s Garden Center on Kresson Road, stated that the extended AHC zone would enable the McNaughton family to keep advancing local agriculture.
“This farm was here before the houses were,” Measey added, referring to the residential neighborhood we are in. As farmers, we were grandfathered in. Regarding zoning, it safeguards our ability to continue as a farm.
The council meeting on the ordinance is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. on March 10.