A 150-acre former landfill property in Bellmawr at Creek Road and Route 42, is expected to see construction start in early 2026 of a Waterfront Park and Nature Walking Trail along the Big Timber Creek.
Future plans for the core acreage of the property includes the development of a multiple building Logistics Warehouse Center. The Logistics Center aspect would be developed at a later date, and is in the early stage of design and approvals.
While all accessibility in and out of the property is through Bellmawr, many don’t realize that the center third of the angled 150 acre per property is actually in Deptford. (See map image further down in the article).
This odd property line goes back to 60 years ago before the landfill was developed, the river at this point actually looped into the center of the property. Through the 60s and 70s the landfill activities relocated the creek’s flow, but the property line does not adjust… leaving the center portion of the property still in Deptford.
Bellmawr and it’s Redevelopment Entity have been working closely with Deptford officials who also need to approve projects at the site.
The Waterfront Park & Nature Trail will be developed first with anticipated construction beginning in early 2026, contingent upon all necessary approvals
Josh Tregear – Bellmawr Redevelopment Agency
As mentioned the current commercial goal is three warehouse buildings atop of the now leveled landfill. Today you can see three large rectangular dirt mounds representing warehouses which I believe was done more for marketing purposes as there is no construction improved.
Bellmawr Waterfront Park and Trail
The casual walking trail will highlight a part of Bellmawr that most people rarely get to see, along the idyllic natural Big Timber Creek and waterfront.
The most recent plan show that the recreational aspects will feature a 1.1 mile walking trail which is not a full loop, so if you walk the entire distance you’ll have to walk back an additional 1.1 miles.
While the plans could change before final approval, they highlight several pavilions along the trail as well as Overlook lookout points offering walkers perfect vantage points of the beautiful Big Timber Creek and surrounding lands.
At this point the plans do not include a boat launch, but that aspect is still being considered.
The plan includes a driveway entrance off of Creek Road in the area of the bend, with a parking lot and bathroom to be developed.
For decades Bellmawr has identified the riverfront area is a prime space to expand their Parks and Recreation options within the community.
The key challenge towards that goal has been that the landfill aspects were originally operated for decades without any real supervision of a state agency, and when dumping at the site finally ended 40 years ago it was basically left uncapped and unmanaged. Walking through the area 20 years ago meant seeing the household trash just collected at the surface.
Today the entire surface is capped with dozens of feet of clean soil, and advanced barrier walls were already installed along the waterfront to hold back any of the landfill aspects that could seep into the water.
What we know simply as the Bellmawr landfill was actually three different connected efforts, and as mentioned the center portion actually resides in Deptford.
Fun fact… the landfill efforts actually mark the start of my “blogging” career when back in 2006 I heard about ambitious plans at the time to redevelop the landfill property into 5,000 townhomes, an office tower and even a Patco Speedline extension. Clearly those plans at the time did not come to fruition.
But doing some research in 2006 I actually found the plans and architect renderings! Thinking the ambition effort should be more widely known and not having a website… I turned the information over to The Courier Post who covered the story. I was quoted in the article as a Bellmawr resident!
From that experience I realized that community journalism was lacking and I started the Bellmawr Blog. In 2014 when we moved to Deptford I shifted to 42Freeway with a focus solely on commercial development.
At the time of that article on 2006, the efforts were just starting to properly close the landfill, which would mean a massive amount of clean soil added to the top of the landfill.. with the developer choosing to take it even higher to level out the top of the property.
From my own observations I know that there are areas of the landfill where 30 feet of new clean soil was added on top!
As mentioned significant work was done around the perimeter of the property at the water’s edge creating barrier walls and installing systems, to keep any landfill materials or seepage out of the creek.
Additionally, stormwater management pipes that had been developed decades ago underneath the landfill were rebuilt in a redirected path along the edge of Route 42.
Simply it’s been a huge and expensive two decade effort to get to this point, where everything is place for the Redevelopment Authority to lead the effort of creating the Waterfront Park, and then a commercial use which currently is a three Warehouse Logistics Center.
Folks will remember that over the years this property was pitched for the initial project of a transit city featuring housing, office spaces and a Patco station (had the rail extension been approved for traveling down Route 42).
Later on the property was touted as a large retail project featuring Bass Pro Shops, with additional retail aspects.
Later on there were thoughts of building a indoor arena to support the Flyers minor league Phantoms team, who were relocating out of Philadelphia.
And I’ve also heard discussions of a solar farm or even a cannabis grow facility, but I don’t believe any of those options moved anywhere beyond just general conversation.
Beyond the need to properly close and cap the landfill was that many of these proposed projects were looking for more direct access from nearby Route 295. The Borough hoped that the design of the now completed Missing Moves project would offer that connectivity to the landfill area.
The Missing Moves connector that runs along side the landfill is now completed, and my understanding is at the time of its design and development… with no one signed on as a tenant for the property NJDOT and the Federal Highway Administration didn’t see the value at the time in investing in the Route 295 access points into the the landfill, without a tenant signed on.
While this wouldn’t solve all of the access points in the future if needed, I note that a segment of the Missing Moves project is actually just a raised dirt hill that if they needed to later on tap into it for additional local road/landfill access, they could likely do so in that area.
An additional road project that could also benefit the landfill is the Leaf Avenue Extension which I understand could be coming up soon.. I need to check with NJDOT for details on that.
Once developed, the Leaf Avenue Extension will become the new on-and-off point for Route 42 at Bellmawr, significantly moving that entrance from Creek Road further away from Route 42 (closer to where Missing Moves crosses over top of Creek Road)… with the goal of improving traffic flow on Creek Road in the area of Harding Avenue and the Wawa by moving the access point further away.
Specific to the Waterfront Park and Trail, as mentioned the town has always wanted to better utilize that waterfront property.
One aspect that helped seal-the-deal for this, is the leftmost third of the property has been owned by Bellmawr for decades, and portions of it were acquired via the New Jersey state Green Acres Program.
Locals will remember when Bellmawr used to run an Ecological Center there, which was an acceptable use of the Green Acres funded property acquisition.
One aspect of the New Jersey Green Acres Program rules is that if you later redevelop an area that was designated as Green Acres property, you must recreate a preserved space elsewhere in the state at a rate that I think is 3 acres to one.
This played a role in the need to develop the Waterfront Park and Trail first as it covers a portion of the relocated Green Acres property… which needs to be done before any of the commercial aspects are developed on the property.
Representatives from the Bellmawr Redevelopment Agency state that they expect construction on the Waterfront Park and trail to start early 2026. Some aspects of the design my change with the final approvals.
Bellmawr Redevelopment – Waterfront Park and TrailCreek RoadBellmawr NJ
Bellmawr Redevelopment Agency