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State grants emergency historic status to Indian burial ground
By Associated Press, 4/3/2002 08:08
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The state has granted emergency historic status to a prehistoric Leni Lenape settlement site in Vernon, thwarting efforts by the township to build sports fields on the artifact-rich land.
The 17-acre site part of a 40-acre creekside plot where prehistoric villages stood was declared historic Monday night by Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.
A state review panel had been scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider designating the 17-acre tract as an historic site. It becomes only the fourth prehistoric settlement to be listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, which includes more than 1,600 sites.
Campbell's ruling came just hours before the Township Council approved a $1 3 million contract to construct two football fields on the land. If the contract had been signed first, the recreation project would have become exempt from development restrictions that protect historic sites. However, the emergency order effectively bars any construction.
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