This is part of the circle at Locustwood that will be excavated to build two 1,650-square-foot freestanding mausoleums.
A Cherry Hill Planning Board meeting set to consider a proposal to add two mausoleums to Locustwood Memorial Park on Monday turned into a session that deeply criticized alleged lack of maintenance, large tree removals and safety concerns at the Route 70 cemetery.
The board unanimously approved the Locustwood Cemetery Association's preliminary and final major site plans to build two 1,650-square-foot mausoleums. Each will hold 462 caskets and have 380 niches for ashes.
But not before much criticism of the cemetery.
"The cemetery has really deteriorated to a point where...there's a lot of things that are wrong" said Township Council member Daniel DiRenzo, the Council representative on the board.Â
DiRenzo, who said he has relatives buried in the cemetery, said he believes members of the public who testified are correct about the maintenance issues.
"I'm really, really disappointed hearing about all these maintenance issues, because my husband and I expect that we're going to be resting here, but hopefully not for a very, very, very long time," said board member Marlyn Kalitan.
>>70and73.com previous reporting:
Cherry Hill's Locustwood cemetery wants to add two new mausoleums to accommodate 924 caskets.
Locustwood Memorial Park will turn the circle in the middle of the property into new mausoleums.
"What was...a beautiful memorial park has turned into something unsightly. And it's very sad," Michael D. Iannetta, of Pennsylvania Avenue, testified before the board. He said he has lived for 61 years near the cemetery and has 11 relatives spanning five generations buried there.
During the meeting, cemetery lawyer Brett Wiltsey acknowledged that management had self-reported a possible wetlands violation to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The wetlands area is not related to the mausoleum plans.
Chad Gaulrapp, senior engineer and civil/site design division manager at Pennoni Associates, said his firm was hired to look for any wetlands disturbances and determined there could have been filling of wetlands with soil stockpiles from burials.Â
Inspectors from DEP reviewed the site based on the cemetery's report that there might have been a violation, he said. A state report is expected in the next two weeks, Gaulrapp added.
A remediation plan could require regrading and planting in the disturbed area to restore it to "somewhat reestablish the natural condition that was there prior to filling," he said.
Neighbor Alexander Esposito of Warren Avenue testified that he had several relatives buried in the cemetery and that over the years he and his wife take frequent walks in the cemetery.
He produced a video of what is believed to be a red-tailed hawk that lived in the trees, some of which were removed about two years ago, he said. Calling for the cemetery to replant more trees than required by law, he showed photos of tree stumps at the cemetery, including one of a tree that was five- to six-feet in diameter.
Esposito also testified about coming across 15-foot piles of surplus soil, which he testified he presumed came from digging graves.
Lisa Perrone, who also lives on Warren Avenue, testified that she hears bulldozers often moving dirt and "creating a mountain range" behind my house.
Other residents testified about the safety issues of dead trees on the property and the removal of the cemetery perimeter fence, allowing youth to enter the cemetery.
"You've heard from the public," board solicitor James Burns told the cemetery's representatives. Residents of Cherry Hill "will be proactive," he added.
Lawyer Wiltsey said cemetery management was listening on the Zoom meeting, but did not necessarily agree with all of the comments made by the public.
The new mausoleums approved Monday night will go on what is now a landscaped circle near the center of the 122-year-old cemetery known for its Doric marble columns that were a part of an exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
More than $500,000 of pre-construction sales have been made for space in the mausoleum, amounting to about 35% capacity in the first building, Wiltsey said.
