GLOUCESTER TWP. ― Ed Bonnette’s property is like an oasis off busy Sicklerville Road. His sprawling home, where he raised five children and often welcomes his 14 grandchildren, has a backyard that would be the envy of any suburban homeowner: an in-ground pool, shaded patio and trees.
So many trees: Pines he planted himself along the fence line, six feet when he bought the property in 1989, now towering above. Native trees that were already here, natural features that appealed to the man who started shade commissions in Gloucester Township, and later for Camden County. Even banana trees, hardy ones bred to weather South Jersey winters, bearing fruit he called “pretty sweet, surprisingly.”
There’s a creek that runs behind the property (“like having a moat,” Bonnette joked) that connects with Big Timber Creek, and the retired salesman, nature enthusiast and parks and recreation advocate said he’s “been blessed” with great neighbors, from the home- and condo owners around him to Freeway Golf Course, which closed in 2016.
But Bonnette and some of his other neighbors worry the site of what’s believed to have been the first Black-owned 18-hole golf course in the country will soon become a warehouse used for big-box or online retailers, changing the landscape and bringing trucks at all hours to an already-congested area.
The site, now zoned for residential use, is owned by Black Horse Properties LLC. The company seeks a variance for approval of a “warehouse and distribution use with associated offices, loading docks, car parking and truck parking.”
Messages left at Black Horse Properties and AP Construction were not immediately returned.
The Gloucester Township Zoning Board will consider the application at its 7 p.m. meeting Wednesday.
Bonnette and several of his neighbors say they’ll be there to voice their opposition.
Bonnette, a retired salesman, has made “a couple of hundred” homemade signs reading “No warehouses,” some in black paint on cardboard, and given them to his neighbors.
“I never thought I’d have a warehouse behind me,” he said. He’s not new to organizing: Bonnette was a founder of the Gloucester Township Shade Tree Commission and Camden County Shade Tree Commission and he’s advocated for recreational facilities, organized youth soccer leagues and even boasted about his role in the efforts to lower the state and national voting age to 18 from 21.
Bonnette and his neighbors fear the already-congested road will become worse if it’s clogged with more trucks going in and out of a warehouse facility day and night.
“It’s already so bad that if you’re not out of your driveway by 7:30, you have to take a ticket (during rush hour),” he said. Sicklerville Road connects several housing developments to Route 42 and Route 168, and the traffic lights at those intersections (and a super Wawa at the base of the 42 entrance) create bottlenecks.
“A warehouse will mean even more trucks idling,” he worries, and more noise and air pollution.
“It’s a big loss to see all that acreage come to something as polluting as a warehouse,” the tree enthusiast said.
“The golf course was a good neighbor,” he remembered. “I know it was a Black-owned enterprise for many years; my wife worked there as a teenager, and I know (its place in the Black community) was a source of pride for a lot of folks I know, and people came from Lawnside and Chesilhurst to play there. (A warehouse) spoils it, the history. It should be left as a park, as way to honor the history.”
The now-defunct club’s website says it opened after four Black businessmen and golfers heard it was going up for auction. Segregation was still in place, and there were few places where Black golfers were welcome to play, so the men put in a bid along with other investors, and the club soon became a destination for Black celebrities and golfers of all races.
According to a 1994 Courier-Post story, Sammy Davis Jr. and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham and safety Wes Hopkins, as well as judges and business leaders, were among those who hit the links at Freeway. Lee Elder, Jim Dent and other professional golfers also played the course; an annual tournament, the Bill Bishop Pro-Am Golf Classic, brought professional golfers to Freeway to raise money for the club pro’s foundation and junior golf program.
Beth Scanzello grew up in Gloucester Township, graduated from Highland High School and moved back in 1992, buying a property so she could share a backyard with her mother.
She’s watched the seemingly relentless development in the township, from the shopping centers that sprouted up on Cross Keys Road on the former Nike missile base to the Gloucester Premium Outlets, and seen how it’s changed the township.
She wants more checks on the development: “It’s not tenable, and frankly, we don’t see one dime of tax relief in Gloucester Township from all of this, either.”
While she said she’s not opposed to development, she worries about whether the process is transparent enough and whether people who bought new homes ― many in the $300,000 to $500,000 range ― near redevelopment zones, such as the one on Cross Keys Road, knew they might soon be living near a giant warehouse or shopping center.
“It seems like anything in a redevelopment zone has its own rules, like it’s open game and anyone can come in and build whatever,” she said. “Whatever they want to build, that’s how it gets zoned.”
That’s why she, Bonnette and other residents want to go to Wednesday’s meeting, to show that they don’t want the variance at the Freeway site. She, too, worries about pollution, noise, more trucks rumbling through the township’s two-lane roads, making them less safe for pedestrians and cyclists.
She worries not enough residents will be able to attend the meeting, which was rescheduled from August, because it’s a school night. Like Bonnette, she would love to see the Freeway site preserved as open space or a park, but believes housing would also be a better use of the land, especially if the township adds a marker noting the site’s historical significance.
“We are in a fight for our community, our roadways. There are already a lot of vehicle accidents, bicycle accidents already. Even if the trucks are slow they’re big. Also the pollution, particulates in the air, they’re not healthy. That land open for as long as it’s been open… we’re just tired of everything being built,” she said.
“Every speck of land out here has been built out into housing or something … just leave the field alone.”
Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She’s called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.