Two Cherry Hill neighborhoods are getting parks
on land that was headed for development.

Cherry Hill is opening two neighborhood parks within the next few months, and both sit on ground that was going to be built on instead. In the Kingston neighborhood, a park with a playground, open space and a recreational area opens in about 60 days on the site of the failed Kingston Swim Club, which the township acquired and demolished. A township owned street hockey court is being rebuilt and blended into the former club property.

Brookfield is second, with a playground and open space opening in 60 to 90 days on a 4.6 acre parcel bounded by Haddonfield-Berlin, Ashbrook and Oakdale roads and Route 295. Mayor David Fleisher describes the two as part of a trifecta with Holly Ravine Farm, the Evesham and Springdale roads property the township bought for $3,859,000 and preserved as open space after a developer proposed to clear the land and build on it.

For an owner, the useful reading is what open space does to a block over time. A playground within walking distance is a line a buyer's agent uses, and it carries more weight in a town that is close to built out, because the supply of it stops growing. Cherry Hill is buying ground rather than watching it fill in, which is a different signal from a town approving whatever comes to the board.

Timing is the caveat worth keeping. Sixty days and 60 to 90 days are the township's own estimates for work that is under way, and municipal openings move. What is settled is that the land is out of the development pipeline and in public hands.