The story so far
The Sisters of St. Mary currently lease the property to The Villa, who operates the current facilities. They are selling the property and The Villa has not had their lease renewed. The developer’s plans were approved, they cut down and destroyed over 600 trees, bulldozed the wall around the sunken garden, emptied the lake, razed a large stone building behind the castle, have added streets and have begun building the homes….
Why did they sell?
While only the sisters can say for sure, we have been told that a significant factor is the reclassification of Loch Linden dam, which creates the lake. The reclassification (to a more strict standard) will require work which the sisters are not interested in undertaking.
When was the sale?
In Nov. 2014, the property had been rezoned, but the conditional use application had not been approved yet. Once they receive the approval, the developers will purchase the property and begin construction. The property was officially purchased in February 2019 after successfully getting approval for a new zoning category, “mixed use residential-historic district”.
What was proposed?
The developers proposed building a private, gated, residential complex of a minimum 378 units at Lindenwold Estate. This would consist of (78) townhomes, (32) carriage houses, and a four story senior “independent”living center, that subsequently was changed to a care facility, including a memory care wing and a full time 24/7 staff of about 90 employees. Also, multiple investors and developers are now in the picture. One for the townhomes, one for the carriage homes, one for the two gate houses, one for the castle and one for the senior care center.
They have however stated the zoning change would allow them to build significantly more than that number, most likely because there was NO MORE ROOM.
This is their proposed zoning amendment
Note that this is 55% impervious ground cover - that means the amount of ground that has been made such that water can not be absorbed into it. Your own property is likely limited to about 30%.
