Christmas Countdown

Preliminary and Final Approvals Given for Townhouse Development Proposed on 29-Acre Medford Lot After Process Began Back in 2004

Planning Board Chair Says He Would Be ‘Derelict in His Duties’ to Vote in Defiance of Court Order, Noting Boards That Have Were Taken Over

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD—After nearly 17 years of development applications, legal proceedings, and several amendments to a consent order, a project to build a townhouse development on a 29.39-acre wooded parcel, located in Medford Township, appears to be finally moving forward.

The Medford Township Planning Board on Nov. 15 gave Orleans Conservatory Group Partners, L.P. preliminary and final major site plan approval to build a 30-unit townhouse development, consisting of five separate buildings, on the eastern side of the intersection of Mill Street and Himmelein Road. The decision is scheduled to be memorialized on Dec. 20, Deputy Township Clerk Dawn Bielec later told this newspaper.

Of the 30 units to be constructed, five of them are to be affordable housing units.

The project, according to Township Planner Scott Taylor during a planning board hearing on the project that began on Sept. 22 and was continued to Nov. 15, was originally initiated by a different developer (Medford Walk, Inc.) in 2004.

That initial developer, he said, ultimately initiated litigation against Medford (which fought both its affordable housing obligation and asked to have the townhouse project turned down).

In 2006, the “township entered into a consent order,” Taylor noted, for a 29-unit townhouse development to be built on the site at issue with five of them affordable units, Taylor pointed out.

That consent order, according to Taylor, was then amended in 2012.

“A court granted approvals to provide for 29 townhouses, five of which were to be affordable units with two drives (entrances) on Mill,” Taylor recounted. “The prior applicant was then granted extensions to that approval in 2016, but that (approval) has since expired.”

Since that time, according to Taylor, the “current applicant” has “worked with the township” and Fair Share Housing Center, an affordable housing advocacy organization, “to continue to provide for the court-mandated affordable housing” in Medford, and effectuate a “new settlement agreement” with the Fair Share Housing Center, which includes “for there to be 30 townhouse units, with five of them affordable” at the intersection of Mill Street and Himmelein Road.

“That is the short version,” Taylor maintained. “The consent order has been amended again, and the new applicant, Orleans, is now here for new approval because that 2012 approval did expire.”

The Medford Township Planning Board gave what essentially amounted to re-approval for the project on Nov. 15, over the objections of numerous residents who spoke out over the course of the two meetings, voicing various concerns about the project, particularly about the potential traffic impact in the area.

However, according to Jack Hartwig, chairman of the Medford Township Planning Board, while the board members get to technically vote on the application, the board members had no real choice in how they had to vote due to the outcome of litigation.

“Mill Street is three-quarters of a mile long,” pointed out resident John Wolgamot on Nov. 15, whose 64 Mill Street home is directly across the street from the proposed project site. “I counted 36 houses. In 100 yards, you are going to double that. Think about that – you are going to add another 30 houses … you are almost going to double the number of cars and people on that street, which is only three-quarters of a mile long.”

Wolgamot called it “ridiculous” for one to think that doubling the number of homes on Mill Street is “not going to effect the traffic” on the roadway.

“There are going to be traffic problems,” he maintained, pointing out that there are already backups in the morning both at the intersection of Mill Street and Himmelein Road as well as at the intersection of Mill and Main Streets.

He added the traffic congestion is an issue even without accounting for the approximately 30 school buses that come and go from Medford Memorial Middle School, which has a driveway that intersects with Mill Street.

“I am sure all of you live in nice houses in nice neighborhoods,” said Wolgamot to the planning board members. “I urge you to treat this as if the building is going to be at the end of your driveway. Because it is at the end of my driveway.”

Nathan Mosley, a traffic engineer with Shropshire & Associates, representing Orleans, maintained when the new application was first presented to the planning board on Sept. 22 that he had prepared a traffic study and that the “projected traffic increase is typical for any new development” with a “trip generation analysis” anticipating “15 additional total trips during the a.m. peak” and “20 additional total trips during the p.m. peak.” See TOWNHOUSE/ Page 10

DePetris Family is ‘Prepared to Move Forward’ with Supermarket at Village of Taunton Forge, Moving Center’s Revitalization Ahead

Photo Provided

Proposed rendering of the renovated supermarket building at Village of Taunton Forge.

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD—The DePetris family, which operates one of the most prominent community shopping centers serving the Medford area at the intersection of Taunton and Tuckerton roads in Medford Township, declared during a Nov. 15 Medford Planning Board meeting that they are now “prepared to move forward with a supermarket” at the site, expressing optimism that by again having an anchor store there, it will “take us to the next level for the shopping center.”

As an applicant before the planning board, the DePetris family is seeking final major site plan and amended preliminary/final phasing plan approval for the “renovation” and “expansion” of the “existing supermarket building” at 200 Tuckerton Road, according to Greg Elko, an engineer with the Doylestown, Pennsylvania firm Langan Engineering, Environmental, Surveying, Landscape Architecture, and Geology D.P.C, who provided testimony during the Nov. 15 hearing on the application.

The existing supermarket building currently sits vacant, last occupied by Murphy’s Marketplace in 2014. Prior to that, the building was the site of a Shop N Bag.

An approval of the supermarket building’s expansion would allow the DePetris family to once again lease the space to a grocery store – with a return of a supermarket to the Village of Taunton Forge long desired by area residents.

“This shopping center has been here for a longtime, and since 1978 the Village of Taunton Forge has very much been a part of the community,” pointed out James DePetris, representing the DePetris family during the hearing.

In 2014, he noted, the planning board gave approval to a prior application for “various renovations and expansions” that “led to the revitalization” of the shopping center.

“At that time, we were 60 percent vacant,” James DePetris said. “We have come a long way and got a lot of new tenants, but we still have a ways to go. It was always our intention to have a supermarket. We could have leased that building to other uses, but today we stand prepared to move forward with a supermarket.”

The renovations to the shopping center that have been approved by the planning board over the course of the last seven years, according to James DePetris, have led to the shopping center now only being “30 percent vacant.”

“And putting this supermarket in will take us to the next level for the shopping center,” he declared.

Elko revealed through his testimony that the expanded supermarket would be 21,159 square feet.

Exterior renovation work proposed for the supermarket building, Elko said, includes adding exterior freezers and coolers in the rear, putting in a loading area back there as well, and extending an existing vestibule in the front.

Also included as part of the project, the engineer said, would be the addition of new light poles both in the back and front of the supermarket building, creation of a driveway connection in the rear of the supermarket building, and adding 12 parking spaces behind the facility, as well as other overlay work.

Elko added that some 180 parking spaces in the front of the supermarket building would restriped, with some of them dedicated for temporary, handicapped and electronic vehicle parking. The addition of crosswalks and guardrails to improve safety are also planned.

The façade and architecture of the retail strip containing the supermarket building, Elko noted, would also be “brought up to the current conditions,” matching the recent renovations of the other retail strips in Village of Taunton Forge, which include Illiano Cucina Mediterranea, Fond Memories, Taco El Tio and Medford TrueValue.

A “preliminary approval” of the plan that had been given, according to Elko, called for “clearing of the underbrush and selective clearing” along the frontside of the shopping center on Tuckerton Road. In seeking final approval, Elko said the DePetris family would now only like to do “selective clearing between a height of only “3 and 7 feet above the ground,” in select areas along Tuckerton Road to increase visibility for the supermarket and other tenants.

Elko noted he found that request to be “more reasonable” than what had been previously approved for vegetation clearing in the next phase, and that it still “gives some consideration to give some views into the See SUPERMARKET/ Page 11

Structural Issues Result in Emergency Closure of Medford Span With Several Weeks of Repairs Expected Before it Can Reopen

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

MEDFORD—The Jackson Road bridge spanning Birchwood Lake was ordered immediately closed by the Burlington County Engineer’s Office on Nov. 23 for repairs of structural issues that were expected to require “several weeks to complete,” with work set to begin as soon as the necessary materials are obtained, according to a news release issued by the county.

County Spokesman David Levinsky told the Pine Barrens Tribune that the emergency closure was the result of several of the supporting piles on the bridge appearing to be damaged above the water table, reducing the span’s bearing capacity and the load it could accommodate.

The unsafe condition of the bridge was first discovered during an inspection the previous week and prompted the bridge load to be immediately lowered to a six-ton maximum. Its being subsequently closed to all traffic was the result of what the engineer’s office determined to be noncompliance with that order, the release noted.

According to a Medford Township Facebook posting, Jackson Road will only be open to local traffic between Stokes and Tuckerton roads until the repairs are completed, with the bridge expected to remain closed for “an extended period of time.”

In the meantime, traffic should detour onto either County Roads 521 or 620 or Stokes Road, a notice from the Burlington County Traffic Operations Center advised.

Previous significant repairs to the Jackson Road bridge were undertaken in the wake of a July flood in 2004, the press release noted.

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Members of the New Jersey State Police Casino Gaming Bureau, the State Troopers Fraternal Association, and employees from TD Bank, participate in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Basket Donation Drive.

ATLANTIC CITY—Murphy’s Fresh Markets, which has grocery stores, including in both Medford and Tabernacle townships, joined forces with the State Troopers Fraternal Organization (STFO) and employees of TD Bank, as well as members of the New Jersey State Police Casino Gaming Bureau, to bring about what was described as a highly successful Thanksgiving Turkey Basket Donation Drive this year at Atlantic City High School.

According to a press release from STFO President Wayne Blanchard, “The event would not have been possible without the generous support of Ron Murphy,” the owner/operator of Murphy’s Fresh Markets.

The release noted that more than 100 turkey baskets were assembled during this 17th annual event for needy families in the Atlantic City area, filled with items that “helped spread holiday cheer and provide a wholesome, festive, and traditional Thanksgiving meal for the less fortunate.”

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