VILLAS — Ten acres of Ponderlodge including the main lodge building will be preserved according to Sen. Jeff Van Drew as an agreement between the state Department of Environmental Protection and Richard M. Stockton was being prepared Friday July 10.
DEP was scheduled to issue a memorandum of agreement July 10, which will detail all the discussions between the agency and Richard M. Stockton College, said Van Drew.
“The college will have about 10 days to tweak it and then sign it as well as the DEP,” he said. “Everything that’s in there has already been discussed, everybody is pretty agreeable, it’s just some details that have to be worked out and that’s going to be done in short order.”
Van Drew said DEP would then issue a permit to the college which will allow them to begin cleaning up the property, get a security guard and secure the buildings.
A long-term lease will be written for Stockton College. Details of the lease will be outlined in the memorandum of agreement.
Stockton College plans to create an environmental education center using the former golf course banquet hall.
DEP was facing a July 10 demolition deadline for buildings.
Van Drew said completing the lease could take several months.
“Once the memorandum of agreement is signed, we’re in good shape,” said Van Drew.
DEP will use the remaining 240 acres with the public having access to the property as they do today.
Van Drew said he believed there was a 99.9 percent chance the deal would be completed.
n a June 15 letter to Matthew Altier, vice president for Administration and Finance for Stockton College, DEP Assistant Commissioner of Natural and Historic Resources Amy Cradic said DEP was “not interested in transferring title to any portion of the property.” She said DEP is willing to offer a 20-year lease with the option to renew “on some on site facilities and surrounding impervious areas.”
The lease would include the existing banquet center, the banquet center parking lot with access to Delview Road, the pool, tennis courts, athletic fields and three residences fronting the access road.
Activist Barbara Skinner began the drive to save Ponderlodge contacting organizations and colleges for three years hoping to find a reuse for the 250 acre property to prevent a planned demolition of the lodge building by DEP. She met with Van Drew on April 2 giving him petitions with signatures supporting the project.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
