A Philadelphia businessman who has operated a store on Jewelers' Row and plans to open one in Cherry Hill has run afoul of the Township's new law protecting trees by cutting down 11 on his property.
Richard Cohen, whose National Watch & Diamond Exchange Inc. operates from Eighth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, received unanimous approval from the Cherry Hill Planning Board on Monday night to renovate disused office buildings he bought last September on Wynwood Avenue, at the Haddonfield Road intersection. The approval included a minor site plan.
Cohen and his land-holding firm, 1114 Wynwood LLC, last week pleaded guilty to removing the trees without the necessary permits from Cherry Hill, according to a Cherry Hill Municipal Court plea document released to 70and73.com after an Open Public Records Act request.
The buildings now near the Haddonfield Road and Wynwood Avenue intersection in Cherry Hill.
"On or about November 1, 2022, the defendant and/or its employees, agents or contractors removed at least 11 trees with a diameter at breast height (DBI) of at least five inches from the property," the property owner admits in the filing.
No application was made for a tree-removal permit from the Township, the plea agreement notes.
The property owner agreed to pay $500 restitution for the removal and $33 in court costs.
Tree removal clean-up at the Wynwood Avenue buildings last October.
In addition, the owner agreed to plant 11 "comparable trees" on the property to make up for those cut down illegally.
Cohen's company was prosecuted under a new tree-removal ordinance adopted in June 2022 that seeks to crack down on developers and property owners who clear-cut or remove trees without securing a Township permit.
At Monday night's planning meeting, the applicant's lawyer, Robert S. Baranowski Jr. of the Marlton firm of Hyland Levin Shapiro, said the tree removal was "an effort to clean up the site" after Cohen bought the property.
Cohen blamed the tree-removal contractor, saying he had assumed the contractor knew what it was doing in securing any necessary permits.
He told board members that his desire to open in Cherry Hill rises partly from the decline of Jewelers' Row in Philadelphia.
"Over the last 30 years business has declined each and every year," Cohen told board members. "People don't want to come into Center City."
He attributed this to high parking costs and a perception of crime. Some big-name jewelers have departed, Cohen explained.
"There's a lot of uninviting stores left on the Row," he said. "People come, they get disinterested, and they don't come back. There's a lot of, for lack of a better word, schlock."
Cohen told 70and73.com in an email on Tuesday morning that he cannot say yet if his Jewelers' Row store will close. He said there are many variables and he would not know for about two months.
The operation in Cherry Hill would buy and sell high-end watches, jewelry, precious metals and collectibles from and to the public in the retail store, accounting for about 10% to 15% of what will be sold by the company, Cohen explained. The balance will be handled by the non-public part of the operation in the building that will be focused on buying and selling remotely.
Board members and some in the public complimented the planned look of the new building and the improvements.
But public testimony at the meeting took the property owner to task for removing the trees.
"I'm deeply concerned about the applicant's respect for the neighbors and the neighborhood," community advocate Martha Wright, a Cherry Hill resident, told the board. "The trees on that site were over 40 feet tall."
Wright said it would take newly planted trees on the site between 20 and 30 years to reach the same maturity.
The property abuts the Locustwood neighborhood, where some residents have organized to fight plans by Cherry Hill Dodge to expand its parking.
One Locustwood resident, Frank Maloney, told the board Monday night: "We weren't too happy about tearing up all those trees in the neighborhood."
"How did we lose 11 older trees...which we're never going to get back to that size or growth within our lifetimes," another Locustwood resident, Alexander Esposito, said in his board testimony.
The applicant's lawyer, Baranowski, said the error of cutting the trees was explained and that his client entered a plea agreement.
"I understand that this is a forum for public comment," Baranowski said. "It's not a forum for public flogging."
The proposed improvements at the two buildings, which will be joined, drew praise from board members.
"Those two buildings as they are now are awful," member Marlyn Kalitan told the board, calling for an approval despite the issues with the illegally removed trees.
"They are looking to make incredible changes to these two awful buildings," she said. "I think it is a wonderful improvement for this neighborhood."
Board member Alise Panitch said the parties had "hit upon a good solution to replace the trees."
The tree plan will be subject to the review of the Township professionals who work with the Planning Board.
