Route 70 self-storage facility goes before zoning board in Cherry Hill
CHERRY HILL – A plan to build a massive self-storage facility here got a rough reception at a recent meeting of the township zoning board.
Multiple board members spoke against the proposed 118,200-square-foot building, which would rise on vacant land at westbound Route 70 and South Union Avenue.
Among other criticisms, board members said the storage building would be a bad fit for an area viewed as a gateway to Cherry Hill’s west side.
“This is not a good use,” Marshall Spevak, the board’s vice chairman, said at the Feb. 1 meeting.
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“I don’t believe that this use fits this location,” added board member Joseph DiSalvo. “I feel it could negatively impact future development in this zone.”
The 1.7-acre lot on Union Avenue's western side is owned by Gelmarc Distributors, a restaurant supplier that demolished its buildings there in 2019.
Did self-storage building get board approval?
Board members took no action on the request for a use variance by the developer Cherry Hill 70 Partners LLC.
Instead, they agreed to adjourn the application until an unspecified date at the request of the developer’s attorney, Duncan Prime of Mount Laurel.
The project requires a use variance because self-storage facilities are otherwise not allowed under the site's zoning.
Prime predicted a delay of “maybe a month or two. Maybe we don’t come back as self-storage, but (the delay) gives us an option to look at it,” he said.
Separately, the board gave final approval to plans for two pad sites at The Center at Cherry Hill, a three-building office park off Chapel Avenue near Haddonfield Road.
The changes were described as a response to a weakened market for office space by the applicant, Brooklyn-based The Center at Cherry Hill LLC.
One pad site is expected to hold a 9,300-square-foot daycare center and a 6,200-square-foot playground for Children of America.
The daycare center with about 25 employees, would serve some 185 children from infancy through 5 years old, according to information provided to the zoning board.
It also would offer an after-school program for children up to 12 years old.
The second site is intended to hold a 2,600-square-foot quick service restaurant, with the tenant still to be determined, according to the board’s agenda.
A Starbucks coffee shop and a store were originally proposed for the other pad site.
The board balked at that plan in December 2022, leading to changes in the proposal.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherry Hill zoning board cool to proposed self-storage building on 70
