The Allegro senior living facility site is outlined in yellow. While the front of the property is largely cleared, the back of the property is heavily wooded. The developer proposes cutting down 465 live trees.
A proposal for senior apartments on nearly 26 acres on South Church Street in Mount Laurel includes plans to remove 465 live trees, including large elms, maples, oaks and poplars.
Allegro Development Company LLC of St. Louis next Monday, April 25, is scheduled to appear before the Zoning Board of Adjustment, seeking approval of its preliminary and final site plan.
In September 2020, Allegro received zoning approval for the four-story, 215,400-square-foot senior housing complex to be built in a residential zone. A total of 172 apartments are proposed, including 97 independent living, 56 assisted living and 19 memory care on the site, which formerly was a Clover garden center and florist shop.
Allegro's site plan shows that 465 living trees will be removed from throughout the site. The front of the property is largely cleared, but the back is heavily wooded.
More than a dozen mature, live trees 30 inches or more in diameter at chest height are included on the developer's tree-removal list. That list cites a 48-inch elm, a 44-inch oak and a 42-inch maple to be cut down.
The clear-cutting plan took the Township by surprise, according to a review letter sent to the developer last April from zoning board planner Joseph M. Petrongolo, of Cherry Hill-based Remington & Vernick Engineers.
"The plans indicate trees to be removed and grading changes toward the rear of the site," Petrongolo wrote in his review letter. "Testimony was provided at the use variance hearing that this area would be undisturbed and existing vegetation would remain."
Allegro's manager for the Mount Laurel project, William Salmon, of Paulus Sokolowski and Sartor LLC in Cherry Hill, said in the response letter to the zoning board that testimony at the zoning meeting will justify the change.
Allegro proposes reforesting the site with 137 shade trees, each 2½ inches in diameter, and 230 evergreen trees, each six to eight feet in height, according to the tree-removal plan.
» READ MORE: Denuding Cherry Hill: Community alarmed, urges action, over number of trees falling to development.
Some communities, alarmed by deforestation, have begun to more closely scrutinize developers' tree-removal plans. Cherry Hill this week is expected to release the draft of a new law that would require developers to contribute to a Township tree fund for trees cleared but not replaced.
The Cherry Hill zoning board in March approved plans for a new PSE&G electrical substation that will require the destruction of 591 trees on a wooded property on Evesham Road.
Allegro plans also show the entrance and exit will be on South Church Street, but a gravel emergency access drive would connect a back parking lot in the complex with Birchfield Drive.
Four lots now make up the site. They are owned by Ralph B. Korkor of Moorestown, Alexander and Karina Bush of Mount Laurel, Clover Property LLC of Cinnaminson and Mark Shae of Hainesport. If approved, the lots would be combined into one for the Allegro complex.
A rendering of the proposed front of the Allegro senior living complex.
