VICTORY IN PENNSVILLE TOWNSHIP, NJ

Wal-Mart plan for P.V. dead [Today’s Sunbeam (N.J.)]

They went head-to-head with a retail giant and won, say environmentalists who claimed a definitive victory over Wal-Mart on Friday.

At stake, a 77-acre tract on the border of the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, slated at one time as the next home for a 280,000-square-foot Wal-Mart super center less than a mile down Route 49 from its existing store here.

Attorneys of Angeloni Development, which sought to purchase the land for the project, sent its official decision in a letter to the Pennsville Planning Board on July 8. The letter was obtained by the Sunbeam Friday.

It was little more than a single sentence that opponents of the super center have been waiting years to hear.

“This is a big victory for us,” said Matt Blake, Delaware Bay Project Manager of the American Littoral Society. “It was the worst display of development in the wrong place.”

The letter from Angeloni attorneys named the block and lot number, below it simply stating, “Please be advised that the applicant is hereby withdrawing the above referenced application.”

Among the roadblocks were a citizen’s lawsuit challenging the 2006 site plan approval by the Pennsville Planning Board, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection’s refusal to allow sewer extension to the site.

Angeloni attorney Frank Hoerst of Woodstown said he has been taken off the developer’s payroll, while Wal-Mart corporate spokeswoman Jennifer Hoehn said she “is not sure what’s going on with the property.”

The plan for the Wal-Mart super center stirred controversy not only in Pennsville, but throughout the county.

The application for the project was the subject of many lengthy and heated planning board meetings in Pennsville.

Besides the effect on the environment, many questioned whether the local population could support a market as huge as was being planned.

Whether Wal-Mart will seek to build a super center in another location in Salem County is unclear.

Known as the Sinnickson Tract, a fallow field at the intersection of Route 49 and Lighthouse Road, Blake said that Angeloni had let its option to purchase the land expire months ago, leading the way now to preservation opportunities.

The land is currently designated as a bald eagle foraging area.

A coalition of New Jersey conservation organizations say they are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to secure federal funding to acquire the tract.

“The opportunity to add this site to the refuge would be an incredible asset to the entire refuge because of its location, habitat value and opportunities for restoration,” said Refuge Manager Howard Schlegel.

Influential lawmakers have also joined the bid to see the land protected, even going so far as saying there should be a return of services there.

The 3,100 acres of Supawna Meadows has faced a complete loss of its annual budget, going unstaffed and unfunded for the past two years. These cutbacks left a five-member staff at the 11,500-acre Cape May National Wildlife Refuge responsible for all the biological, maintenance and patrolling needs of Supawna Meadows.

According to Schlegel, the staff works at Supawna about one day a week, meaning a great deal of the day-to-day tasks are not completed. Congressman Frank LoBiondo has been a staunch supporter of greater government assistance for the refuge.

“I am currently working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to secure whatever federal funding is available to preserve this unique property,” said LoBiondo. “Acquiring this land would not only increase the attraction of the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, but would reinforce my long-standing argument that full-time personnel and services should be reinstated.”

Salem County Watershed Taskforce Chairwoman Nancy Merritt called the Super Wal-Mart defeat an important effort of over half a dozen organizations.

“(This) speaks volumes to the effectiveness of a community’s efforts in coming together to give a voice to and fight for the protection of an ecosystem that is integral to Salem County,” Merritt said. “The land will have a chance to go on in perpetuity doing what it was designed to do support an ecosystem that so much of our wildlife depends on.”

Among the groups calling for preservation now are the American Littoral Society, Citizens of Pennsville Against Sprawl, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Concerned Citizens of Pilesgrove, New Jersey Audubon Society, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Salem County Watershed Taskforce, Concerned Pilesgrove Residents and Friends of Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

Blake said the American Littoral Society became involved more than two years ago, when the state Office of Smart Growth inadvertently mapped the site to support metropolitan growth.

He added the tract protects the headwaters of Mill Creek, a tidal estuary that serves as a critical feeding area for nearly 6,000 pairs of wading birds. It is the largest such rookery on the Atlantic Flyway north of Florida.

The Office of Smart Growth has since proposed to reclassify the site as environmentally sensitive.