 |
| Front and rear views of new apartment complex on Main Street. These views will NOT be visible from Main Street. |
The Evesham Township Planning Board met on 8/16/2018 to consider two items related to redevelopment at the Harvest House location. There were only 6 board members in attendance (DiEnna, Levenson, Mondi, Marrone, McGoey, Parikh).
The first agenda item was a 'minor subdivision' of two properties on Cooper Avenue. As the redeveloper was drawing up plans for the Harvest House site, they noted that they could provide a better neighborhood if they were to provide an offsite drainage basin. This offsite basin would be located at 19 Cooper Avenue, behind the house that is currently located there. To accommodate that, approximately 7,000 square feet of land at 19 Cooper would be split off and combined with the Harvest House site. In addition, approximately 311 square feet from 17 Cooper would be needed to both connect the two previously mentioned properties, along with allowing for the burial of underground pipes and utilities. It should be noted that all three properties are currently owned by the developer.
 |
| 1) Harvest House 2) Future location of drainage basin at 19 Cooper 3) 17 Cooper Ave Note that Apartments on Main Street are not visible on this old satellite photo from Google . |
Two variances were needed to accommodate this plan - both 17 and 19 Cooper are required to have a 25 foot setback at the rear of their property and neither would have that, having 20 and 13 feet respectively, though it was again noted that the developer owns all three properties currently. This was justified by the developer in noting that having offsite drainage allowed for them to move the new building further from the relocated Harvest House, allowing more open space.
The measure passed by the vote of 6-0.
Following the vote, Bob Meyer, representing the developer, gave a brief history of the Apartments at Main Street. (For the remainder of this blog, I will refer to this as AMS). AMS is 24 apartment units with 4000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor. The project was completed on August 1, 2017 and all apartments were occupied as of 1/1/2018. While they were satisfied with the 'absorption' rate, rentals did go a little slower than they expected. They also learned there was much more of a market for 1 bedrooms than they allocated for in AMS, which affected the future split of apartments in the new Harvest House Apartments (abbreviated HHA).
The new HHA will have 54 units, including 8 set aside for affordable housing. There will be 16 units with balconies and 16 units with garages. There will be 26 1-bedroom, 26 2-bedroom and 2 3-bedroom. There will also be two additional 1 bedroom apartments on the second floor of the Harvest House, with 1,066 square feet of commercial on the first floor of the Harvest House.
HHA will also have a gym, which will be available for any resident of HHA, the Harvest House or APM.
 |
| This is the view of the new apartments that will face Main Street |
The new HHA will be designed using a similar design, lighting and color scheme to APM. The goal is to have HHA and APM appear as one seamless apartment complex. The entrance to APM would be moved 22 feet to the east, and would serve as the entrance for all buildings on the site.
Upon passage of the required ordinances, a new foundation will be built for Harvest House and the Harvest House would be moved. Only the historical portion of the Harvest House would be moved - the addition from the 1970s on the rear would be demolished.
 |
| To the right of the yellow line would be demolished |
Due to the age and condition of the porch, it was determined that it will not be able to be saved. However, plans are to rebuild a porch to the same specifications. When the rear portion is demolished, the developer will get an idea of how the rear wall of the building looks and repair as needed, adding windows which were removed when the addition was built. There are also stipulations in the plan as to procedures to follow if any significant old artifacts are found upon removal of the Harvest House from its current site.
The entire building will get a new roof, be cleaned and windows may need to be replaced. It was noted by the board that the public would probably want to see the house being moved, so the developer agreed to give public notice. The hope was that someone would film and/or live-stream the event.
 |
| View from Main Street today. Apartments on Main Street on left, Harvest House in the center rear |
 |
| Future view from Main Street. Apartments on Main Street on Left, Harvest House on right, new apartment complex behind Harvest House. The colors used in this rendering do not match what actually exists today. |
Mr Meyer noted that AMS took 12 months to complete, and predicts this development would take approximately 16 months.
Parking and Traffic
Whenever new development is proposed, people are always very interested in traffic and parking. Parking requirements are included in the town code and are written directly into the Project Plan for any new development. For this project, as the lot for the new development is being combined with the existing lot for AMS, the requirements are considered together.
An examination of the site plan does indeed include 136 spaces. The current parking lot to the east of AMS is being enlarged and reconfigured for additional parking. There will no longer be angled parking, but instead 90 degree parking on both sides of the drive lane, which is being moved, as previously noted. There will also be 2 additional spaces directly on Main Street in front of the newly relocated Harvest House. Each apartment will have one reserved space.
During the meeting, Town Planner Leah Furey Bruder mentioned the new commercial tenant at AMS as a 'restaurant', referring to the forthcoming Nene's Market. During public comment, I asked whether it was appropriate to designate the commercial space for Nene's at 4.5 spaces per 1000 square feet of retail, rather than the requirement for restaurants, which is 15 spaces per 1000 square feet, as specified in Town Code.
Ms Bruder noted that the Redevelopment Plan passed in September of 2014 supersedes the Town Code, and stipulates the parking requirements as follows:
"Parking for a restaurant use that is 2,500 square feet or less within the rehabilitation area shall follow parking requirement for a retail use of 4.5 parking spaces per 1,000 SF"
 |
| Parking Plan and shape of new lot |
Regarding traffic, the entire development (Harvest House, HHA and AMS) will contain 82 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail. Vehicles can enter the complex from Cooper or Main Street, but all vehicles must exit on Cooper. The developer noted that they had their traffic engineer present at the meeting, but as the Planning Board traffic engineer had raised no issues with their plan, they would not be speaking unless called upon for testimony.
If you are leaving the complex with a destination of Route 70 West, Google Maps suggests 3 alternatives, and I have added a 4th that I don't believe is legal, but I worry people will do anyway:
- Make a left on to Cooper, a right on to Main Street, a right on to Main Street Extension and then making a left on to Route 70 West.
- Make a left on to Cooper, a right on to Main Street, a right on to North Maple and a left on to Route 70 West.
- Make a right on to Cooper, a right on to Route 70 East and take the jughandle at North Locust to make a u-turn on to Route 70 West.
- Make a right on to Cooper, make a right into the Plaza 70 shopping center (Produce Junction/Franco's), make a left on to North Locust and a left on to Route 70 West.
There was a lot more information provided at the meeting, so if you have any questions, feel free to post them and I will try to answer. I have a lot of notes that didn't make it into the blog, as I worry too much information is overkill. Including me, there were 4 members of the public in attendance.
Like my Facebook Page to get the latest posts - A View From Evesham. You can email me at MarltonNeil@yahoo.com.