Mount Laurel zoning board vote on Monday night killed Allegro plans for senior-living facility.

The Mount Laurel zoning board on Monday night killed a proposed project by Allegro Development Company LLC to build a 172-unit senior apartment and care facility on vacant land on South Church Street.

After hearing about changes in Allegro's plans for the project, board members voted 4-3 in favor of a use variance. The plan was scuttled because five affirmative votes were needed.

In September 2020, Allegro received use-variance approval from the board for a four-story, 215,400-square-foot senior housing complex to be built in a residential zone. A total of 172 apartments were 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.

Changes were made to Allegro's plans and the developer on Monday appeared before the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a new use variance and preliminary and major site-plan approval.

Since the approval in 2020, Allegro learned that, because the Church Road property was below the flood plain, a mitigation area — in essence, a large retention pond — had to be created. That would have required removing vegetation and 360 trees from two acres, creating an average two-foot depression and then planting trees to replace those removed.

"We don't want to remove these trees," Allegro lawyer Richard J. Hoff Jr., of Bisgaier Hoff LLC of Haddonfield, told the board. 

The flood plain — the north branch of Pennsauken Creek is on the property — also required the St. Louis-based developer to move a required emergency access driveway from Church Road to a gravel driveway connecting to Birchfield Drive. The senior facility would have been built at the front of the property, with much of the rest preserved as wetlands.

"I think the changes they're making are substantial," board member Brian Sharp said before casting his "no" vote. "I just don't think this project fits onto this property."

Member Alan Kramer said he was "on the fence" for the 2020 vote, but at the time he ended up voting in favor of a use variance.

"These changes now are sort of taking me off that fence on the side where I don't agree," he told the board before voting "no" on Monday night. "I think it's not good for the environment."

Board chair Christopher Gray also voted against the use variance, saying that Allegro did not show the beneficial impact of the project would overcome the negative.

Voting in favor of the use variance were John B. Francescone, Jeanne Andersen, Charles Holmes and Byron Allen Blum.

Allegro hired a court reporter to record and prepare a transcript of Monday night's hearing. The developer can seek to overturn the decision in state Superior Court.

Allegro's plan for a senior-living facility had been seen by some as a solution for the troubled Church Street property.

The long-vacant land is polluted by pesticides, which Allegro said would be removed under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Protection. Because of the wetlands, much of the acreage also is not developable.

Neighbors turned out to testify against the change in Allegro's plans.

Mike Falciani, who lives on Snowball Court near the property, said he did not understand how Allegro could maintain that the project did not have a negative impact on nearby neighborhoods.

"Can I do an eyeroll or something at this point?" asked Falciani, who like the others were testifying online and not in person.

Some of the residents testifying mentioned the potential impact of tree clearing on wildlife.

"I'm concerned about the future of any wildlife there," Carole Sibley, of St. Clair Court, told the board, asking if there were plans to "rehome" the wildlife disrupted by the project.

Martin Levin of Birchfield Drive asked if the Township Environmental Commission, which was established last year, had an opportunity to rule on the project. He was told the commission was founded after Allegro had applied to the zoning board.