Hindu temple in Cherry Hill plans sweeping facelift and expansion that would include a second-floor gym.

A Hindu place of worship in Cherry Hill proposes a massive facelift and the addition of a second-floor gym to its Carnegie Plaza building off Springdale Road near the Mount Laurel border.

Nonprofit BAPS Cherry Hill LLC, with a mailing address in Windsor, Mercer County, is scheduled to appear on on May 21 before the Township Zoning Board of Adjustment seeking approvals for preliminary and final major site plans and use variances.

"The purpose of the new facility is to replace the current aging facility which, from a maintenance perspective, has become cost prohibitive to upgrade," the nonprofit said in its application for the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir temple, which has operated at the location since 2002. "The facility will house the current congregation but the renovation is intended to offer more indoor facilities, such as a gymnasium (for enrichment of youth activities), a dedicated prayer hall, and better Sunday school rooms, within the same framework."

BAPS Cherry Hill's expansion, if granted, would add 18,300 square feet, including a 3,500-square-foot prayer hall, in the 47-year-old former warehouse next to King's Christian School and behind the Point of Woods neighborhood in Cherry Hill. The expansion would grow the building's 65,650 square feet by 28%.

The expansion would not affect the wooded wetlands that separate the temple from the neighborhood on the 11-acre property, which BAPS purchased in 2003, according to the Township review.

Besides a 7,000-square-foot gym, BAPS Cherry Hill also wants to add 23 parking spaces, according to the application. Permission also is sought for spires, or shikharas, as high as 58 feet, the application notes. Maximum height under zoning law is 35 feet. 

BAPS Cherry Hill said in its operations report that fewer than 20 individuals frequent the temple from Monday through Friday.

On weekends, between 400 and 500 congregants worship primarily on Sunday afternoons between 2 and 7 p.m. As many as 600 devotees gather during the high holidays six times a year, the operations report states. 

The attendance by congregants, who typically live within a 20-minute drive, has remained constant over the last 10 years.

"A resident priest and his family, who are caretakers of the facility, reside within the priest quarters at the temple to perform the daily rites and rituals of the mandir," according to the application.