‘Historic’ County Airport Pact Marks 293 Acres as Conservation Easement

CREST HAVEN – “Very historic for us,” said County Engineer Dale Foster. “Fairly unprecedented to lock in wetlands,” said Freeholder Will Morey.
At the Feb. 9 freeholder caucus both referred to a 293-acre conservation easement agreement with the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection for county-owned land northeast and northwest of the Cape May County Airport.
The easement secures into the future wetlands boundaries. Thus the county will not be required to resurvey and reapply to DEP every five years to reset the boundaries, something that Morey estimated could cost several hundred thousand dollars.
Morey said Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno intervened on the county’s behalf to work with state agencies as well as the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airport is surrounded by “a lot of wetlands,” noted Foster.
Because the county owns the airport and leases it to the Delaware River and Bay Authority to operate since 1999, that entity was also part of the DEP agreement.
The resolution passed by the board noted, as settlement stipulation, two areas of wetlands along with the associated wetlands buffers, in the northwest and northeast quadrants total 293 acres.
Working out the agreement, Morey said, the DEP at first sought to restrict the size and weight of aircraft utilizing the airport.
“Once we got on the phone we said ‘That’s just not any of your darned business. We have vertical lift aircraft that take up half the runway. We don’t want to relegate the airport into a substandard facility, which will happen if you make any arbitrary decisions,’ and they backed off,” Morey said.
As stated in the resolution, “As part of the NJDEP permit condition, wetland areas identified within the Cape May County Airport are to forever be restricted from development.”
Morey introduced the measure, seconded by Freeholder Kristine Gabor. The vote was unanimous to pass.