For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
The Mercer County Park Commission is holding a virtual public meeting for the Moores Station Quarry Park Master Plan. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 2 from 7 to 9pm. The Moores Station Quarry has been operating since the 1800s. The Park Commission is developing a master plan to turn the quarry into a park after quarrying operations cease in spring of 2023.
“After all these years, the Moores Station Quarry is finally closing and Mercer County is moving forward with creating a park there. This was proposed decades ago, and now the quarry is finally closing. This means the environmental impacts from all of the trucks and the pollution from the site will finally stop. Now that the quarry is closing, the property needs to be restored,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This new park shouldn’t become a place for active recreation. There are other Mercer County parks for that. This area should continue the open space and wild experience of Baldpate Mountain.”
The quarry site is located next to the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain. It measures over 2,000 feet across and is approximately 200 feet deep. A multi-disciplinary team is working to develop the master plan, including landscape architects, geologists, engineers, ecologists, wildlife biologists, architects, sustainability experts and real estate market analysts.
“The Sierra Club and others have fought countless battles to protect Baldpate Mountain. We stopped projects like ball and soccer fields, as well as a new entrance that would have been like a highway going up the mountain. That is why it is critical that this quarry park has to be compatible with the goals of the park. It needs to be for passive recreation, with trees, meadows, and wetlands. They should not use this park as an excuse for these active recreation amenities or facilities,” said Tittel. “This quarry should have been shut down a long time ago. Now that it is finally being turned into a park, it cannot be privatized. Too many people have fought too hard for too long to save this area to lose it now to profiteers.”
The process of turning the quarry into a park will take multiple years, starting with developing a park master plan. The Park Commission will be holding additional public meetings on the master plan in February, May, and October of 2021.
“People need to come to the hearing to protect Baldpate Mountain. We have worked tremendously to protect Baldpate, and we need to make sure that this park continues that legacy. It is important to keep this area in a natural state instead of repurposing it for active recreation. They could put an arboretum in the quarry pit. They could also work on restoring wetlands and riparian corridors in the area,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “It is important for the people to come out to the meeting and demand that the area is fully restored. If done properly, this park will be a critical part of restoring and preserving the wild spaces of Baldpate Mountain.”