Wagner talks about building an empty nesters “Dream Unit” at Bancroft
There has been little written about the Borough’s plans for Bancroft and unless you attended some of the meetings at the Planning Board. I was surprised at the Planning Boards reaction to the originally planned development, from April, which was a well designed community of larger townhouse units designed for Empty Nesters and seniors. These are the type of homes I believe Haddonfield residents want, In my experience, they do not want to live in a multi unit building, high rise, or apartment style home, They want the “dream unit”, a townhouse in a lovely, well designed and well maintained community setting with your own front door, your own two car garage, and a first floor master bedroom suite. They should be about 2,200 to 2,600 sf. Families have collected a lifetime of possessions before they move and generally have a lot of stuff to take with them, so small two bedroom units are usually not large enough. You can buy this style of home in Moorestown and Cherry Hill, but not in Haddonfield.
Our seniors who want to stay in town but don’t want to maintain their oversized single family home, have a few options. Tarditi Commons are available for lower income seniors, Haddonfield Commons, are moderately priced condos and the Haddonfield Mews, is a lovely and well maintained townhouse community that is more vertical (3 to 4 story units) but lacks indoor parking.
In my experience, the “Dream Unit” is the most sought after housing type for Haddonfield empty nesters,, and will bring in the most tax dollars, provide the opportunity for more open space with less residents and less traffic. At this cost, they are less likely to be bought as starter homes for families with children.
The last thing we want is anything that looks like the development on Haddon Ave. in Westmont, low cost flats that will end up as investments and rentals rather than an upscale residential community.
What do you think? Let’s start a conversation.
