A proposal from Public Service Electric and Gas Co. that includes clearing 591 trees from an Evesham Road property in Cherry Hill to make way for an electrical substation is scheduled to go before the zoning board on Thursday.
Many of the targeted trees are more than 20 inches in diameter, measured at breast height, according to an inventory filed with PSE&G's application to the Township. One red maple is listed at 35.6 inches in diameter and a tulip tree is 37.5 inches.
The substation would border Evesham and Voorhees on land now owned by Congregation M'kor Shalom. The synagogue's 21 acres would be subdivided, with nearly 11 acres purchased by PSE&G. The new "Echelon Substation" would go on about three acres, with the balance never to be developed, according to the utility.
How the property, shown in the rendering above, actually looked last April.
"PSE&G's Marlton Substation currently serves over 22,000 customers, with over 80% of those in Cherry Hill and Evesham townships, and is significantly overloaded," according to a PSE&G project information sheet filed with the Township. "The completion of the Echelon substation will relieve the system overload, improve local electric reliability and prevent possible supply interruptions."
The unmanned Echelon Substation would have the same capacity as the Marlton Substation, which is on the northbound side of Route 73 in Evesham, near the Bonefish Grill restaurant.
A map included with PSE&G's application shows seven other options for substation sites, all of them in Evesham near Route 73 between the Evesham Road intersection and the Kresson Road intersection. Five are on Route 73 and two are on Dutch Road.
PSE&G's plan to remove a total of 591 trees. The "x" marks show the trees to be cut.
The 21-acre M'kor Shalom property was vacant and wooded before the construction of the synagogue building in the late 1980s. A plan in 2018 to subdivide the land and build a 66-bed, assisted-living facility by Cherry Hill Care Group LLC had been approved by the Planning Board, but the project never moved forward.
M'kor Shalom and Temple Emmanuel, at Kresson and Springdale Roads, in January announced plans to merge this year. After the announcement, M'kor Shalom president Drew Molotsky told 70and73.com that the synagogue building and property would be sold after the M'kor Shalom congregation moves to Temple Emmanuel.
If PSE&G buys part of the property for its substation, the utility has suggested ways to address the destruction of 591 trees.Â
"PSE&G would like to propose off-site plantings or a monetary contribution to the city's 'tree fund' in lieu of planting replacement trees on site," according to the utility's project information sheet filed as part of its application.
PSE&G maintains the removal is necessary for the project. In a statement provided to 70and73.com on January 19, the utility pledged to protect the rest of the acreage.
"PSE&G has agreed to a deed restriction on the majority of the undeveloped property we intend to purchase, which will preserve those portions of the property from development in the future," Anthony M. Garrihy, PSE&G's communications senior consultant, said in the statement emailed to 70and73.com. "This includes approximately three heavily wooded acres of uplands that have old growth trees, and several acres of environmentally sensitive wetlands."
An electrical substation is a permitted use for the property, which is in an institutional zone, surrounded by residential neighborhoods in Cherry Hill and Voorhees.
The utility seeks some waivers, including one for the height of the facility. Under the zoning ordinance, a building height is limited to 35 feet. But PSE&G is asking to install three 152-foot-tall monopole structures and an A-frame structure that would be 70 feet tall.
The planned site for the PSE&G substation is in orange. Evesham Road is to the south.
PSE&G's application to the Cherry Hill zoning board includes a map of other potential sites to build the substation, all of them in Evesham.Â
