Town Center? Transit Village?
Urbanism?
Cutting-edge concepts like these are being brushed aside
in Haddon Township, where the Planning Board Monday unanimously approved an
old-fashioned, suburban-style apartment complex for downtown.
Though the project will bring several hundred residents
to the business district, it seems unlikely to capitalize on the full potential
of Haddon Avenue's biggest and best-ever redevelopment opportunity - and
unlikely to help make Westmont's long, somewhat jumbled, and thoroughly
car-centric main street more of a destination.
"I'm very happy," developer Art Corsini of
Fieldstone Associates said after the meeting. "We're anxious to get
started."
The Somerset County firm's plans call for a $52 million,
252-unit, seven-building rental complex with 373 parking spaces.
The board's 7-0 vote followed a presentation by architect
Victor L. Barr Jr. of largely cosmetic changes to two of the seven buildings in
the complex. The Haddon Avenue facades of both will be decorated "to give
the impression of a series of individual attached buildings," Barr said.
Critics, including members of South Jersey Urbanists, a
grassroots group that had lobbied for design changes and other improvements,
said they were pleased.
"It looks a lot better," group leader and
township resident Jason Miller said. "Much more urban."
Better, sure. But good enough?
Look, the leaders of the comfortable Camden County
township of nearly 15,000 people have an understandable desire to get something
built at long last on the weedy dead zone near the Westmont PATCO station.
Speaking as she prepared to cast her yes vote Monday,
board member Maggie Downham noted that township officials began working on
redevelopment plans for Haddon Avenue in 1999.
By the mid-2000s, the township had begun assembling the
site, occupied by a former diaper-laundering firm and a cluster of small
businesses, at a cost of $8.3 million.
The wide-open space in the heart of the Haddon Avenue
corridor was dreamed about, fought over, and litigated (at a $1.1 million cost
to taxpayers) for a decade. And for nearly as long, this theoretically prime
piece of real estate has been entirely off the tax rolls.
Fieldstone will reimburse the township for the $8.3
million acquisition cost when it takes title to the site. But the township will
finance part of the construction project with a $6 million infrastructure bond.
That amount is to be paid back, with interest, during a
30-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with Fieldstone. The
township will realize an additional $15 million in revenue during the life of
the PILOT agreement.
The complex also will include 25 low-income units; the
addition of the affordable apartments is the result of a settlement this year
between the township and the Fair Share Housing Center.
That's a good thing.
But the stingy amount of retail space - eight or so
storefronts in what the township once envisioned as a mixed-use development
akin to those enlivening tired downtowns nationwide - disappointed many,
including me. (If demand is sufficient, these ground-floor apartments could be
converted to storefronts later on, Fieldstone representatives said.)
Nearly 400 people had responded to a survey about the
project on the NJPen.com website, with a majority saying the plans should be
improved.
In an interview earlier in the day, a township resident
and critic of the original plan, Tom Cassel - who seemed pleased by the facade
alterations - noted that "this project has been on the table for 12 years.
The buildings will be there for 100 years. It should be done right."
I agree.
But the feeling on the board Monday seemed to be that the
township had done too much work and come too far along in the process to turn
away from the Fieldstone plan.
The firm deserves credit for trying to accommodate some
of the public's requests for changes.
But to me, even with the improved facades, this doesn't
look like the game-changing, signature development the heart of Haddon Township
has been waiting for.
Source: Philly.com
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