SPRINGFIELD TWP. — Local officials are celebrating a recent court victory over one of the nation’s biggest housing developers, a win that keeps intact one of the most rural, lightly populated, and heavily agricultural areas in New Jersey.

Builder D.R. Horton Inc. has a contract to buy the Van Wagoner family farm, about 286 acres unfolding on either side of Arney’s Mount-Birmingham Road. It wants to build nearly 400 homes, with 15 percent intended as “affordable” housing and the rest as market rate.

video link below:

Springfield Twp wins court fight against housing developer D.R. Horton (courierpostonline.com)

Springfield Township, Burlington County Press Release March 18, 2024

On March 7, 2024 Jeanne Covert, Assignment Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court in Burlington County rendered a decision in the case of D.R. Horton vs. Springfield Township. The Court’s decision upholds the principle that sound land use planning matters in New Jersey. The Court sustained the carefully-considered and decades-long efforts of Springfield Township, Burlington County, and the State to retain a viable agricultural industry and to keep contiguous blocks of prime farmland in the hands of working farmers. These efforts prevailed even against a deep-pocketed national builder that tried to use the Mount Laurel doctrine to force a suburban housing development into the middle of farmland and environmentally sensitive areas where dense housing and the infrastructure needed to support it don’t exist and should not be extended.
For decades Springfield has been committed, with its polices and pocketbook, to the retention of agriculture, the protection of environmentally sensitive lands, the preservation of farmland, and the provision of locally appropriate affordable housing in ways that are aligned with County and State land use priorities for the area. In our densely populated and heavily developed State, Springfield’s land use planning objectives can only be achieved through deliberate and coordinated planning that involves every level of government. The residents of the Township have demonstrated their support of these policies with their overwhelming votes to approve local bond ordinances for farmland preservation, a local farmland preservation tax (in 1999, and again last year), and a County open space and farmland preservation tax. The taxpayers’ approval of these levies demonstrates that the citizens of Springfield Township and the region place a high value on farmland and open space preservation. The collective investments of tens of millions of dollars by State, County and local government in land preservation in Springfield, and the ongoing commitments to do even more, are because Springfield is at the center of a broader regional effort to create a large area of preserved rural farmlands to secure the long-term stability of the agricultural industry for the benefit of all citizens of the State. Since 2021, when the nation’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton- a public company with billions of dollars in annual revenues- first approached Springfield with a demand that Horton be allowed to construct 1,540 residences on the 286 acre Van Wagoner farm on Arney’s Mount-Birmingham Road, Springfield has resisted. The proposal was not accepted by the Township’s Mayor and Council, because it was clearly not consistent with the character of the area, would destroy prime soils and fragment the agricultural land base, would require the clearing of the highest point in southern New Jersey (Arney’s Mount), would necessitate the wasteful extension of infrastructure from developed areas that are miles away, and would require small country roads to handle traffic far beyond their capacity. The proposal was inconsistent with sound land use planning at every level of government. D.R. Horton then filed a builder’s remedy lawsuit against the Township, the Township Council, the Mayor and the Planning Board seeking to use the Mount Laurel doctrine as a club to batter the Township into approval of Horton’s inappropriate plans. Over the course of the litigation, D.R. Horton revised its proposal downward to 622 units, and then to 389 units, as wetlands, steep slopes and other environmental issues made it clear (even to Horton) that large areas of the farm could not be developed. Before the Court, Horton’s argument relied upon its proposal to make 15% of the housing affordable and its willingness to spend unlimited time and money to achieve all of the permits and approvals that would be needed for the development.
The Court found that the Township had demonstrated that D.R. Horton’s proposal was the epitome of poor planning and that the proposed site is not appropriate or suitable for the suburban development they proposed. Springfield Township has been and continues to be committed to providing for Springfield’s fair share of affordable housing, but the Mayor and members of the Town Council will continue do so in a responsible manner that respects sound planning, not as dictated by opportunistic, profit-seeking developers.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is undertaking a Program to construct grade-separated U-Turn Structures for maintenance vehicles and emergency responders on the southern portion of the Turnpike, from just north of Interchange 5 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. This Program is in Final Design, with construction anticipated to begin in 2025. One new U-Turn is planned within the boundaries of Springfield Township, at Turnpike Milepost 46.1, approximately two miles north of Interchange 5. 

Use the links below for  more information.

NJTA Capital Projects: Capital Projects | NJTA

Virtual Room: New Jersey Turnpike Capacity Enhancements Program (aecomviz.com)