6,000 Sign Petition to Stop Massive Sports Complex Along Banks Jackson’s Prospertown Lake

[29yrswithaGApass]

 

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6,000 Sign Petition to Stop Massive Sports Complex Along Banks Jackson’s Prospertown Lake

By Shore News Network

Posted on July 14, 2019

 

 

 

JACKSON-The proposed 200-acre sports complex that once boasted a new stadium for Governor Phil Murphy’s Sky Blue FC Women’s soccer team has residents of Jackson Township upset over the mass clearing of land along protected waterways along the banks of Prospertown Lake.

 

Marc Covitz, a nearby resident of Millstone is leading the charge and has collected over 6,000 names on a petition to stop the project before it starts.

 

“Trophy Park is a massive sports complex planned to be built on 200 acres of Great Adventure/Six Flags property in the Pinelands forest of Jackson Township on the southern shore of Prospertown Lake, and would extend west to Hawkin Road,” Covitz said. “The plans call for clear cutting thousands of trees in order to construct a 6,000 seat soccer stadium, two 98-room hotels, a dormitory and temporary housing for 2,000 players per week, 23 full size athletic fields, a 400,000 sq ft indoor sports facility, an 800-seat dining hall and on-site restaurants and concessions.”

 

Apparently, Governor Murphy agreed and he pulled his women’s soccer club from the project, but state officials and authorities are still giving the project their full support.

 

“We believe the development will pose detrimental effects to the quality of life for residents in the surrounding towns due to extreme traffic congestion and grid lock and will cause severe effects to Prospertown Lake, the Pinelands and the numerous threatened and endangered species that inhabit the forest,” Covitz added.

 

The following statement is on the petition page:

Environmentally speaking, the project is wrong in so many ways. It is proposed to be placed between two State Wildlife Management Areas (Prospertown Lake and Colliers Mills) and on the shore of a Category 1 waterway and will result in the removal of thousands of trees in the Pinelands forest. Category 1 waterways are protected from any measurable change in water quality because of their exceptional ecological significance, exceptional recreational significance, exceptional water supply significance, or exceptional fisheries resources. The development will undoubtedly alter the existing water quality in Prospertown Lake and the streams it feeds.

 

Covitz serves as President of the Crosswicks-Doctors Creek Watershed Association and is the former chairman of the Upper Freehold Township Environmental Committee.

 

 

 

 

[Medusa42]

Another change.org petition.  Is there even a way to verify that the signatures are all local residents or is this just a bunch of random tree huggers and Sierra Club members?

 

 

[29yrswithaGApass]

I didn't realize this complex was going to be built on Great Adventure's property.

[Medusa42]

Here is the site plan:

[SFGadv123]

I didn't realize this was going to be built literally right next to Prospertown Lake. I also didn't realize Six Flags even owned the land on the other side of the lake. 

 

It's interesting that this petition was created 7 months ago (and reached 6,000 signatures 2 months ago) but suddenly this article is being written about it. 

 

Having said that, the fact that this is being built right next to the Prospertown Wildlife Management Area and the fact that there are already plans to build a massive sports complex down the road, why is this necessary? I can only imagine the significant increase in traffic and the damage this could cause to Prospertown Lake.