Residents who live in or near the Birchfield section in Mount Laurel packed the township courtroom Wednesday night to fight a proposed 170-unit senior living complex in their neighborhood.
Allegro Development Company Inc. has asked the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a variance to deviate from current zoning, which is R-3 and allows only single-family dwellings at the parcel on and adjacent to 1017 South Church St., the former site of the Clover Florist and garden center. Allegro also needs permission for its complex to average 48 feet in height, or 4 stories, which exceeds the current zoning maximum of 35 feet or 2½ stories.
Rendering of the front of the proposed Allegro senior assisted living facility on Church Street in Mount Laurel.Â
"It needs to be put in a place where it belongs," one resident said of the proposed senior facility during public testimony. "Church Street is, frankly, a disaster," he said. Other residents said they were concerned about traffic safety at nearby intersections and any extra traffic the senior facility would generate.
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Allegro's plan dominated most of the four-hour zoning meeting, which was adjourned at 11 p.m. Not every member of the public had time to testify and board members did not make a decision, so the testimony will continue at the board's March 4 meeting.
Board Chair Jeff Bailey left the meeting before Allegro testified. He recused himself because he has a business relationship with someone who has a business interest in the project, the board's attorney said.
The proposed project would front on South Church Street in Mount Laurel and border the Birchfield development and Laurel Acres Park.
The complex's rental units would include: 96 for independent living, 53 for assisted living and 21 for memory care patients who have dementia or Alzheimer's disease. For the variance, the developer must demonstrate the complex won't have a negative impact on the area and would be "inherently beneficial."
Allegro, based in St. Louis, operates senior living facilities in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota and Missouri. An Allegro senior facility in Harrington Park Borough, Bergen County, was approved in September, 2019. Allegro is represented locally by lawyer Frank V. Tedesco of Dilworth Paxson LLP in Cherry Hill.
Allegro residents rent their space. The Harrington Park rental fee will start at $7,050 a month, according to the company's website. The rent at Allegro in South Tampa, Florida starts at $4,900 a month.
Joe Miklich, Allegro's senior vice president of development, said Allegro Senior Living residents — typical move-in age is 85 — enjoy a "resort-style, cruise ship lifestyle." The Mount Laurel development would include a salon, spa, bar, putting green and several dining venues for residents.
Woods, abandoned buildings and debris now fill much of the troubled site. Pesticides and heavy metals used in the former agricultural business have polluted the land and the groundwater — requiring a remediation plan approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the developer's representatives told the board. Much of the area is covered by wetlands, so Allegro would be limited to developing about 6 acres on the northwest corner of the 25.5-acre site.
Former site of the Clover Florist, 1017 Church St. in Mount Laurel, which may be turned into a senior living care development.
The board and its professional staff said few uses for the parcel would be able to cover the financial burden of environmental remediation. Mount Laurel once looked at buying the property to turn it into open space, but found the pollution clean-up to be too expensive, they said. One use would be to build 13 homes on the site, but such a project likely would not include a pollution clean-up, said Board Planner Joseph Petrongolo.
Petrongolo told the board he agrees the Allegro complex would be a beneficial use for the property. However, he said, he would recommend the project only if the open space on the site was protected with a deed restriction.
Miklich of Allegro told 70and73.com he had no estimate of the cost of the full project and that the company still was working on cost estimates for the environmental remediation.
He testified at the hearing that Allegro has been looking for sites in Mount Laurel for nearly two years and has had the Church Street property under contract for 15 months. He said the developer spent about 12 months researching the site's wetlands and the extent of needed environmental remediation.
"We understand that some of the neighbors are not happy with this proposal," Miklich told the board.
He said the complex would have about 100 full-time equivalent employees working over three shifts, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Neighbors said they were concerned about traffic from the complex, but Allegro representatives said the shifts would not begin and end at the same time as normal rush hours.
Bill Elliott, who lives on Yorktown Drive in the Ramblewood development not far from the proposed complex, said it now can take him a half hour during evening rush hour to drive two miles down Church Street. He was concerned with how the senior facility might add to that congestion.
Desiree Smith, whose home on Ursinia Court abuts the site, testified she is worried the complex's lighted parking lot is "going to be daylight at night." She said her children's bedroom windows face the property.
Smith said she also has notified the state DEP about what she believes is endangered wildlife living on the property. That includes turtles, salamanders and a bald eagle. Any kind of development would affect these species, she told the board.
