Stockton College, DEP Ironing Out Details of Ponderlodge Lease

VILLAS — Richard M. Stockton College of New Jersey is continuing to negotiate a lease of Ponderlodge with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Stockton College spokesman Tim Kelly told the Herald the college has been granted the right of entry into the Ponderlodge property but until Stockton has a fully executed lease, the college is limited in what it can do at the site.
“We are still in negotiations with the state Department of Environmental Protection with some of the language of the lease,” he said. “We also must have approval from the federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).”
He said Stockton was in the “paperwork stage of getting everything finalized with those two agencies.” Kelly said it could take a few more months to finalize the lease.
In the mean time, the college has contacted with a private security firm to patrol Ponderlodge and is also working with Lower Township police for additional patrols.
“We’ve addressed the security issue, that’s first and foremost to protect what’s there,” said Kelly.
Stockton College has hired consultants to examine buildings on the site and assess what repairs are needed, he said.
Kelly said Stockton College was “moving forward and still very excited about the project.” When the lease is completed, Stockton will be able to start announcing the types of programs that will be offered and community opportunities, he said.
“I think the residents are going to be really excited when they hear about what we are going to be doing,” said Kelly.
He said the education center at Ponderlodge will be the first physical presence Stockton College has had in this part of South Jersey.
DEP offered Stockton College a 20-year lease on 10 acres of Ponderlodge to create an environmental education center. DEP and Stockton College signed a memorandum of agreement Aug. 5.
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.
DEP purchased the 253-acre property, a former golf course, in February 2006 with approximately $8.5 million in Green Acres open space funding including a $1 million grant from the national Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. The property has been under the management of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.
The division is implementing a plan to create, reestablish and enhance critical wildlife habitat on 140 acres of forests, 15 acres of wetlands, 22 acres of grasslands, 14 acres of meadows, six acres of scrub-shrub habitat and five vernal pools.
In the memorandum of agreement, Stockton requested to lease a 12.2 acre portion of the Ponderlodge property containing many of the existing structures for “use as an educational center to hold classes, seminars, adult education programs, talks, and conferences open to the public with the possibility of creating an educational campus and using an appropriate portion of the developed property as an interpretive education center…”
The agreement notes “ Stockton acknowledges that all of the structures in the proposed lease area will require substantial capital improvements to be used by the public and that any such improvements will be made by Stockton, not NJDEP.”