At the March 17 meeting of the Evesham Township Council residents once again raised questions surrounding the redevelopment of a property along South Maple Avenue and Mayor Randy Brown’s previous ownership of said property.
At the meeting, council, with Brown abstaining due to a conflict of interest, voted to designate a master redeveloper for the former property housing the United Title & Abstract Agency formally owned Brown.
Developer Mitchell Davis, on behalf of current owner South Maple LLC, gave a presentation at the meeting with plans to turn the property, located across from the Evesham Township School District Administrative Office, into a group of apartments.
Several residents raised questions about that vote, asking if there was any preferential treatment being given to the property because of the mayor’s previous ownership.
One resident, Joe Scialabbo, said he found it “difficult to understand” that with the many properties available for redevelopment in the town, the one previously owned by the mayor seemed to him to be moving the quickest.
“One of the busiest roads in the town that’s already a traffic concern, did that get any preferential treatment to be one of the properties up for development?” Scialabbo said.
Township solicitor John Gillespie said all proper procedures have been followed in the process, with Brown recusing himself from all necessary votes, with Brown even taking the extra precaution of leaving the dais when the votes are taking place.
Gillespie also said he did not believe the process was moving quick, with the area the property is located in first being declared in need of redevelopment back in the summer.
Gillespie also said there was no secrecy with the property, as multiple public council meetings and planning board meetings have taken place in which the property was discussed and the public had the opportunity to ask questions.
“There are a number of public meetings,” Gillespie said. “There is no secret. For anyone to suggest that this is all being done behind closed doors — look at the records.”
Scialabbo also said he wanted to know if anyone else on council had an interest in the property, but Gillespie said New Jersey land use law requires that anyone with a 10 percent interest or more in a planning board application must disclose who those ownership interests are.
Gillespie said if anyone else had an interest in the property he would have advised them to recuse themselves as he did with Brown.
Resident Joe Barbagiovanni also voiced concerns over the apartments, and said they were coming to what he called a “nice, residential community” and the town had more than enough in that area.
“If you guy two blocks to the north right across Route 70 there’s about 1000 apartments,” Barbagiovanni said. “You want to put another 250 apartments where the old K-Mart used to be. You just put 50 apartments on Main Street. Now you’re going to be another 55 apartments on Maple Avenue.”
Barbagiovanni also questioned how the apartments would be filled as New Jersey was losing population
“You’re putting up all these apartments and you’re expecting people to rent them,”
Barbagiovanni said. “Where are the people coming from? I want you to think about this. Don’t ruin a good neighborhood.”
Gillespie said that the issues of traffic and landscaping were for the planning board to decide, meeting which Gillespie again noted were public meetings where those with concerns were free to attend.
Councilman Ken D’Andrea said that he didn’t necessarily want a four-story apartment building in that area either, but there is a planning board process that needs to take place and it wasn’t for council to decide.
“I was a little bit taken back when I looked at that design,” D’Andrea said. “I also am not interested in a four story setup either, but you did hear from the developer or perhaps from anybody, but the market seems to be willing to bear that versus anything else.”
