Plan that may include 325 apartments approved by Evesham Township Council for Centre Boulevard.

An apartment complex with a parking garage and as many as 325 units — 49 of them designated as affordable — would be built on the site of the Marlton Crossing office complex at Old Marlton Pike and Centre Boulevard, according to a unanimous Township Council decision.

The redevelopment plan ordinance was adopted after Council heard from members of the public and the professional planner who wrote the plan for the Township. The office complex, which has operated well below full capacity for years, would be demolished.

"It is, I think, going to be a beautiful addition to our overall community here in Evesham," Mayor Jaclyn Veasy said before the 5-0 vote on Wednesday.

But some in the community do not view the expected four-story apartment buildings a good choice for the 10 acres on the border of the Marlton Crossing shopping center.

"You're changing the town," Dr. Robert A Marchinek, a resident who has operated his dental office in the Marlton Crossing office park for 30 years, told Council members during public testimony. "You're making it more high density. That's not my vision of the town that I've been in for 39 years and really enjoyed being here."

The dentist said that medical or dental offices require a great deal of infrastructure. "When you start tearing them down it really, really hurts. We provided quality services for the community for years and years and years and years."

Earlier coverage of the plan: Read here.

Resident Carol Houck, who lives on Ashley Court in a development across Centre Boulevard from the complex, told Council she was worried about increased traffic from more than 300 apartments.

"Everyone's very concerned because it's a highly congested area already and what this will do to the traffic on Old Marlton Pike and Centre Boulevard," Houck said. 

"I've lived in those condos for 30-plus years and the area has changed so much and has become so congested that I just think that maybe less apartments would be okay, but I think 325 would be quite large for that area," she added.

Any actual plan for an apartment development would need to seek Planning Board approval, a process that includes the presentation of detailed plans and reports on the impact on traffic. The public would get another opportunity to testify.

Al-Tariq Witcher, director of external affairs for the Cherry Hill-based Fairshare Housing Center that advocates for affordable housing in New Jersey, praised the plan.

"The redevelopment project is exactly the kind of affordable housing we need," Witcher told Council members. "It serves critical needs of supportive and special needs housing that impacts so many people in this community."

John Barree, a professional planner from Heyer, Gruel & Associates of Red Bank, Monmouth County, told Council that about half of the 49 affordable units would be for tenants with special needs. The balance of the project will rent at market rates and probably will be marketed as "luxury apartments," he said.

"The thrust of the plan is to redevelop what is an aging office park," Barree said of the Marlton Crossing offices, which were built in 1987 and sold to Marlton Crossing LLC in 1999 for $6 million.

"It is replacing an existing developed site, so we're not cutting down trees. We're not going out and tearing up a farm field," Barree said.

 Council member Heather Cooper said the redevelopment plan "continues the town vision."

"It addresses the diverse needs of our community," she said before the vote.