Cedar Grove Purchases 53 Acres of Land to Preserve Open Space
CEDAR GROVE, NJ – After months of negotiations, the Cedar Grove Town Council announced the purchase of more than 53 acres of undeveloped property within the township on Tuesday.
According to the social media posts by Mayor Joe Cicala and the other council members, the property purchased is located on Ridge Road across from the reservoir. The post stated:
You may be aware that there is a petition circulating around town asking residents to set aside $6.5M to be used to possibly purchase various undeveloped properties in the future. First and foremost, we want you to know that we wholeheartedly agree with the underlying premise of preserving open space and consider this one of the most important topics for our community. In fact, it is so important that we have been working tirelessly on preservation efforts for the past year, and our silence on this petition was to avoid jeopardizing the LARGEST OPEN SPACE PURCHASE in recent Cedar Grove history. With that, we are so excited to announce that we have just finalized the purchase of 53+ acres of undeveloped property in Cedar Grove and will be preserving it as open space. While our community is constantly under a microscope by developers, we have now taken one giant step to preserving the future of Cedar Grove! More details to follow at our meeting on September 10th (the property is located on Ridge Road across from the reservoir).
Cicala told TAPinto Verona/Cedar Grove that the purchase had been one of his campaign goals when he was running in March of 2017 and he is thrilled to see that goal become a reality.
“I and the rest of the council have worked diligently to make this a reality. This is the largest tract of open space remaining in town and we have not taken steps to preserve and protect it in perpetuity,” Cicala said. “It will always be open space.”
Cicala opted not to comment about the purchase price at this time, but asked residents to wait until the Sept. 10 council meeting when that and much more information would be shared.
TAPinto Verona/Cedar Grove is an online newspaper serving the Townships of Verona and Cedar Grove. TAPinto Verona/Cedar Grove is accredited by the New Jersey Press Association, and is a locally owned news organization serving the community.
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