Evesham Town Council 6/11/2018 - Affordable Housing, Heritage Park, Mini Golf and the Final Chapter of Burger King
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| Honoring volunteer Deputy Chief Robert Zane (Photo courtesy of Evesham Fire-Rescue) |
The June 12th, 2018 Evesham Town Council meeting started several minutes late and without Mayor Brown in attendance. Chief Chew began with presentations, inviting up members of hte Knights of Columbus, who every year ask the Police Department for nominations for Officer of the Year. This year, Officer Jeremy Borden was nominated. Officer Borden, a 9 year veteran, along with his K-9 partner Spike, were instrumental in finding a mother and 15 month old child who were lost in the woods. Officer Borden and Spike were both on hand to accept the Knights of Columbus 'Shield Award'.
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| Officer Borden and Spike |
Next up, Chief Chew recognized 5 members of the public, who were on hand at a youth soccer game when the referee collapsed in cardiac arrest. The 5 performed CPR for over 5 minutes and the AED (defibrillator) which was available at the facility was used, shocking the victim twice until his heart start beating again. Coincidentally, one of the five, Pepi Dragotta, collapsed in cardiac arrest 2.5 years ago on a soccer field. After that event, he started the Heroes Foundation NJ, whose mission is to educate the public on cardiac health and raise funds to provide AEDs and training to local community sports complexes. Because of his history, he always notes where AEDs are when entering facilities, so knew just where to find it when an emergency occurred. Both the soccer referee and his saviors were on hand to receive the proclamation.
Chief Crew also recognized Deputy Chief Robert Zane, who on March 30th, 2018, responded to a residence with a woman in labor. The child was born in the residence and was not breathing. Deputy Chief Zane performed CPR for 2 minutes until the baby began breathing on her own.
Following this, Deputy Mayor Hackman presented awards to two Cherokee seniors, Rachel Hackman who recently received her Girl Scout Gold Award and Nikhil (Nick) Kadirisani who received his Eagle Scout Award. Ms Hackman enjoyed presenting these awards because not only are Rachel and Nick President and Vice President of the Youth Advisory Committee (which Ms Hackman created), but Rachel Hackman is also her daughter. Both students described the projects they worked on to receive their awards. Nick collected 50 used backpacks and solicited donations to fill them with toiletries. He then donated the backpacks to a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. Rachel worked to create waste bag dispensers at 6 locations around town where people walk their pets - most notably at the dog park. She arranged collection points for people to donate their plastic grocery bags to fill these dispensers, recycling plastic bags and saving the township $6,000 it was spending buying 'poo' bags. She also set up a Giving Tree to collect pet toys for local animal shelters.
Bob Hennefer, Evesham Director of Golf, Recreation and Open Space then gave a presentation on several initiatives around town.
Back at the November, 2017 Town Council meeting, the conditions of the Heritage Park were brought before the council. Shortly thereafter I documented the poor conditions of the park. Mr Hennefer advised that the park will shortly undergo transformation.
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| Heritage Park as it looks today |
- The two tennis courts will be replaced with two half-court basketball courts, along with a playground on a rubber base.
- A sidewalk will be created to go all the way from the street to the playground.
- The border fences will be repaired and moved closer to the playground
- The existing swingset and playground will be removed
- The grassy area will be re-seeded
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| New basketball courts and playground for Heritage |
Contracts are expected to be awarded at the next council meeting. Repairs are fully funded by a Burlington County Park Grant.
Two other local parks will shortly undergo changes as well. Woodstream Park will get a new walking path around the entire park, and the hockey rink will be resurfaced and converted into 2 full length basketball courts and a multi-use court. Westerly Playground will get a new 'tot lot', similar to the one placed in Country Farms last summer.
Mr Hennefer also advised that they will be creating a miniature golf course next to the driving range at Indian Springs. They are currently soliciting bids and design proposals. Construction is expected to start in early 2019, with a targeted opening date of Memorial Day, 2019. It is expected to cost between $500,000 and $600,000, and pay for itself within 18 months.
After Mr Hennefer's presentation, the Mayor joined the meeting by speakerphone.
The 2018 Municipal Budget, Resolutions 181-2018 and 182-2018 was adopted by a vote of 5-0. The budget is $37,668,632.
Ordinance 13-6-2018 - Stow Road
Township Planner Leah Furey was invited up to speak about 16 Stow Road. (I previously documented this property, with pictures, and the need for affordable housing when it first was mentioned in Town Council back in December.)
Ms Furey explained how Evesham is trying to meet their affordable housing requirement as part of Fair Share, but the number of required housing units is a moving target. Up to 25% of the obligation can be senior house, so they are looking at a 68 unit, 4 story building for the property. She feels the building would be 'compatible with surrounding uses'. She noted that the office park surrounding the property has a lot of vacancies, so there may be additional future housing possibilities in the area. Because the free market would not build an affordable housing project, special funding is needed, and that there are Low Income Housing Funding Credits available, which the developer (the Walters Group) will be applying for in July. This is the reason that things are moving quickly. If they are able to obtain the credits, which Ms Furey believes they will, the Walters Group would then appear before the Planning Board with their proposal.
During public comment, the owner of an adjacent property spoke against the project, stating that it seems like the developer approacted Town Council with a request for rezoning, and not the other way around. He notes his house, the Hollinshead House is a landmark on the NJ State Registry.
The ordinance passed 4-0-1, with Mayor Brown abstaining without comment.
Ordinance 14-6-2018
This ordinance is related to a new 'Workforce Affordable Residential Zone' (WFA) to be created on Executive Drive, located approximately the blue triangle below.
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| Executive Drive as it looks today. For reference, Bradley's Funeral Home is on the top right |
Here is the same property with the new project superimposed on it:
And a closeup of the new project:
Here is the developers vision of what the buildings will look like:
Ms Furey explained that the land has been approved for development for over 30 years. Originally it was designated as an office park, but only 2 buildings were built. The new area would be rezoned to allow for affordable family housing. There are 8 acres, but much of it is wetlands, so building will only be on approximately 2 acres. The new housing will be 3 stories and approximately 64 units.
About a half a dozen residents from Glenview Court expressed their concerns about the project. The new development backs to Glenview Court, and residents are concerned with the traffic, noise, wildlife being pushed out of their habitat, the height of the buildings (which would look down on the houses on Glenview), and that this appears to be the use of spot zoning.
The ordinance was passed 4-0-1 with Mayor Brown abstaining without comment.
There were two ordinances that were getting their first reading, with public hearing scheduled for July 17, 2018, at the next Town Council Meeting. The first Ordinance, 15-7-2018 is to establish a PILOT agreement for the new buildings on Executive Drive.
The second ordinance, 16-7-2018, is to amend the redevelopment plan for properties on Main Street and Cooper, specifically everything in the blue box below. I've marked Harvest House as (1) and the Apartments on Main St as (2) for reference. Its an old picture on Google Maps, so the Apartments aren't there.
Both ordinances passed 4-0-1, with Mayor Brown abstaining without comment.
Resolution 183-2018 passed 5-0 to appoint Karen Kaplan as Municipal Court Judge.
Resolutions 184-2018 through 188-2018 were all related to the two affordable housing projects and all passed 4-0-1, with Mayor Brown abstaining with comment.
Resolution 189-2018 is a resolution authorizing the final settlement of the Burger King condemnation. Burger King had 4 years remaining on its lease and the town and developer felt it was impeding the development of Renaissance Square. Councilman D'Andrea stated that Burger King was offered space in the new complex, but Burger King resisted and eminent domain was used to extinguish the lease. Burger King was awarded $190,000, which will be paid by the developer, costing the taxpayers nothing. Burger King closed in early January and was demolished 3/19/2018.
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| Marlton Burger King 198? - 2017 |
During final public comment, resident Ryan Albright noted that June is Pride Month, and he was hoping that the township would be willing to do something for it. He mentioned a recent post in a local Facebook group containing an article about a town that had painted rainbow crosswalks, and he noted that overall residents seemed supportive of the idea. Rather than rainbow crosswalks, he is requesting rainbow flags on Main Street that will be funded through donation, so no tax dollars would be used. These flags would be displayed for the last week of Pride Month, from June 24 through June 30th. Councilman D'Andrea seemed interested in the idea, and suggested instead perhaps a banner across Main Street and at one other location in town. I believe Mr Albright and Councilman D'Andrea spoke after the meeting.
Miscellaneous Odds and Ends
- Construction on Kettle Run Road will be after July 9th and continue through the end of August. Kettle Run Road will be closed during the day and open at night.
- Evesboro Medford Road is scheduled to be repaved during July or August.