Cherry Hill, Evesham/Marlton, Medford, Medford Lakes, Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Voorhees and elsewhere near the iconic state highways of Routes 70 and 73.
Senior citizens, many of whom live in the Holiday Village East 55-and-over community, packed the meeting room at Mount Laurel municipal offices to oppose Mavis Discount Tire's application to open a store next to their neighborhood.
Senior citizens, many of whom live in the Holiday Village East 55-and-over community, packed the meeting room at Mount Laurel municipal offices to oppose Mavis Discount Tire's application to open a store next to their neighborhood.
Protesting residents streamed into Mount Laurel's municipal building in November when the Mavis Discount Tire chain went before the zoning board for approval to demolish a former bank and build an outlet next to the Holiday Village East neighborhood.
Peppered with questions from the standing-room-only audience and board members, Mavis asked for a postponement to research answers and appear at a future board meeting to move ahead with its plans for an eight-bay tire center.
But that apparently will not happen: Mavis Tire has withdrawn its application for the property at Morning Glory Drive and Union Mill Road, the zoning board administrator, Suzanna Baskay, reported to 70and73.com in an email on Monday.
The former bank building, which would have been demolished to make way for a Mavis Discount Tire store.
"Our position is not simply a NIMBY (not in my backyard) position," Rocco Palmieri, president of the Holiday Village East Board of Directors, told the zoning board at its November 5 meeting.
Palmieri said the tire center does not fit the zoning plan for the area, adding that those who live in the 963 homes in Holiday Village East co-exist well with the Towne Square Shopping Center, which includes a ShopRite supermarket. The board hired land-use lawyer Henry Chou to be a formal intervenor.
A Mavis store at the edge of the shopping center would change that relationship because of noise and other issues such as increased traffic and pollution, opponents said.
The 6,952-square-foot tire store and service center would have been constructed on the site of the former Liberty Bell Bank.
