Mount Laurel redevelopment plan attracts businesses, but upsets neighbors

MOUNT LAUREL – A planning board meeting here ended with approval for a self-storage facility — and an angry expletive from a resident in a virtual audience.

“Thank you all,” a man’s voice said sarcastically after the board voted in favor of a proposed three-story, 110,000-square foot building on Beaver Avenue, a largely residential street between Route 73 and Church Road.

“You don’t f---ing live here,” the audience member snapped.

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Unhappy residents of Beaver and nearby Oregon avenues blasted the proposal during a public-comment session that continued for almost 90 minutes at the Oct. 12 meeting.

Beaver Avenue project faces residents' fury

But the self-storage facility is “an expressly permitted use” for the almost two-acre site, an overgrown and trash-strewn lot across from a Route 73 Walmart, said Sara Werner, the developer’s attorney.

And traffic issues — although a big concern for residents — were largely beyond the planning board’s jurisdiction, said solicitor Ron Cacciore.

"The municipal land use law limits the (board's) jurisdiction to the safety of ingress and egress (for permitted uses)," he said, although that point appeared to have little impact on the residents' discontent.

Werner noted the building would rise in the Fellowship redevelopment area approved by township council more than decade ago.

"The area is still in need of redevelopment," she said.

Restrictions will bar living in storage units

An adjacent parcel, also covered by trees and brush, is the proposed site of a car wash at Beaver and Route 73.

The board is to consider that plan at its Nov. 9 meeting.

Construction of the storage facility could begin this year, with completion expected within 18 months.

Among other restrictions, customers of the “highly secured” building will not be allowed to live in their storage units or to keep hazardous materials there, noted Richard Cardamone, an executive for Florida-based Nuvo Development.

Residents complained the area’s redevelopment was coming at their expense.

“We’re going to be stuck with lower property values, a lot more traffic and with the riffraff that comes with a building like this,” claimed Christopher Murray of Oregon Avenue.

“We've gone through Walmart and Life Time Fitness,” Oregon Avenue resident Patricia Speas said of two earlier redevelopment projects. “Neither one of them were wanted.

“It’s just constantly adding this, adding that,” she said. “It’s basically ruining our neighborhood.”

One common complaint: Neighbors said motorists frequently turn onto Beaver or Oregon, mistakenly expecting to reach the Walmart.

But there is no access to the store, and the drivers make U turns on the narrow streets, often with the help of residents' driveways.

One neighbor suggested traffic issues could be solved by making the neighborhood a gated community.

Michael Angelastro, the township’s traffic engineer, said that would not be feasible.

He also noted the township previously asked the state Department of Transportation to restrict turns onto Beaver from Route 73, a state highway

“We did pursue it and the DOT did say, ‘We won’t permit that.’”

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Mount Laurel planning board acts on proposal for self-storage facility