Concept drawing of entire project.

CAPE MAY — You’ve probably heard of Green Acres, a government program to preserve open space for parks but have you heard of Blue Acres?

The state Department of Environmental Protection Blue Acres program helps municipalities purchase properties that have been damaged by or prone to damage caused by storms or storm-related flooding or that may buffer or protect other lands from such damage.

Cape May has applied for $800,000 through Blue Acres to purchase a property adjacent to the former Vance’s Bar on Lafayette Street as part of a project to create a recreation and open space area from Cape May Elementary School to St. John’s Street.

At a Feb. 21 City Council meeting, consultant Jim Rutala said Blue Acres has $9 million available for grants. He said Blue Acres would provide a grant up to 50 percent of the value of a property.
The Lafayette Street property was assessed at $1.5 million, so if the city were successful in obtaining a grant, it would total $800,000, said Rutala. He said the city may not receive the full amount of its grant application.

“This property did qualify in the fact that it is flood prone and it does have wetlands and wetlands buffers and in this case, it’s adjacent to other open space properties which makes it more ideal from a state standpoint,” said Rutala.

He said the city should be notified by late summer if will receive the grant.

At a press conference Dec. 14, 2011, city officials announced an a initial $450,000 grant received from Green Acres Program for property acquisition along Lafayette Street for a future 38 acre park/open space area.

Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. said the timeframe to complete the project was five to seven years.

A substantial part of the project is on contaminated land that will be part of a remediation project by Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) which inherited the site of a former coal gasification plant that left widespread contaminants underground.
Mahaney said the project was dependent on the third phase of remediation by JCP&L and DEP.