Garden State Park Gatehouse in Cherry Hill to be preserved in plan to open multi-level go-kart racing.

A multi-level go-kart racing venue would be built at the Route 70 entrance to the Garden State Park shopping complex in Cherry Hill and the historic Garden State Park Gatehouse would be preserved as part of the project, according to a developer's plans.

Sangermano Management LLC, doing business as Supercharged Entertainment of Sunny Isles, Florida, seeks preliminary and final major site plan approval from the Township zoning board, which is scheduled to hear the application next Thursday, March 20. Supercharged tracks include one in Edison, Middlesex County.

The 89,000-square-foot, two-story racing venue, arcade, 18-lane bowling alley and restaurant/bar would be built on a 9.69-acre lot facing Route 70. Another lot, about one-third of an acre would be subdivided from the larger lot and hold the historic Garden State Park Gatehouse.

For decades, another type of racing — horse racing — was on the site of what today are the stores and apartments at the shopping complex. The original racetrack opened in 1942 and burned down in 1977. A new, state-of-the-art track opened in April 1985, but it was a financial failure and shut down in May 2001.

Details of the proposed project and the upcoming Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting are available here. An open caucus begins at 7 p.m. and the meeting follows at 7:30. The meeting is remote and offered over Zoom.

The Supercharged facility in Edison charges $29 for one seven-minute race, $56 for two and $81 for three. Before racing, guests must sign waivers to operate the karts, which can go up to 45 miles an hour, according to the website. Drivers must meet a minimum height requirement of 58 inches.

More than 40 go-karts can run on a track at the same time, according to the Cherry Hill proposal.

Hours at the Cherry Hill facility would be 1 to 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 1 p.m. to midnight, Friday; 10 a.m. to midnight, Saturday and 10 to 10 Sunday, according to the developer's project overview letter submitted to the board by its lawyer.

However, the operations report submitted with the application shows hours of 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday. The operations report indicates it was used for the Edison facility.

"The site plan depicts 283-passenger vehicle parking spaces, including 29 electric vehicle charging stations," according to the developer's environmental impact statement. 

The statement notes: "The property contains only a few mature trees that appear to have been planted with the racetrack improvements. ...The project’s landscape plan depicts 45 deciduous shade trees, 24 new evergreen trees and 11 ornamental trees along with over 600 shrubs and 1,100 ground cover or herbaceous plants."

Traffic would be impacted by the Supercharged facility at Garden State Park, which during busy hours now has traffic backed up to turn from Route 70 eastbound. 

A traffic study estimates a total of 168 vehicles going in or out during the Friday p.m. peak hour and 227 vehicles during the midday Saturday peak hour. Driveways would be on Garden State Park Boulevard only, and not from Route 70, according to the plans.

An application review by Township zoning engineer C. Jeremy Noll of Environmental Resolutions Inc. of Mount Laurel, states that 6.96 of the nearly 10 acres would be used by the project. 

"The site contains a large wet pond used to control runoff from the surrounding shopping center as well as the subject property," Noll wrote, adding that "the site is subject to numerous critical area, easements and agreements."

Architectural plans for the proposed venue show the first floor will be mostly the race track and ticketing and staging area for race participants. The second floor will hold the bowling alley and a restaurant and bar with views of the race track.