Self-storage facility on Route 70 in Cherry Hill? Zoning board sees it as bad fit for town's gateway.

A developer with plans to build a four-story, self-storage facility on westbound Route 70 in Cherry Hill was sent away on Thursday night without an approval by the Township zoning board.

Several board members said they could not grant a use variance to allow the project at the corner of South Union Avenue because zoning laws did not permit the use and also because, under zoning, the site is considered part of the "gateway" to the Township.

"It's a very nice self-storage facility, but it's still a self-storage facility," board Chair Jonathan Rardin told representatives of Cherry Hill 70 Partners LLC, the Lakewood-based developer that wanted an exception made for a 100,592-square-foot building on 1.7 acres of now-vacant land. The developer originally came in with an application for a building about 18,000 square feet larger.

Added member Marshall Spevak:"This does not fit. This is not a good use. This is not inherently beneficial."

Spevak suggested that the developer, seeing the opposition, might not want to proceed with a vote. The board likely would have voted down the project.

Lawyer Duncan Prime, of Prime & Tuvel of Mount Laurel, represented the developer and told the board he would need to regroup with his clients to decide how, or if, to proceed.

Much of the concern at the meeting was over locating a self-storage facility in an area of Route 70 that has undergone extensive development in recent years. In 2020, another developer won zoning board approval for two hotels and a restaurant on vacant land next to the proposed self-storage site.

The self-storage building would go on property owned by Gelmarc Distributors Inc., a restaurant equipment distributor. Warehouse and light industrial buildings on the land were demolished in 2019.

"Is this how we want to welcome people to Cherry Hill?" Martha Wright, a resident and community advocate, asked the board during the public comment period. "I don't think so."

Board member Joseph DiSalvo said he was concerned that a self-storage facility would be out of place with the new hotels. He said that the self-storage building could clash if the neighboring Body Shop by DiEva car repair shop decided to sell in the future and the property were developed.

"I don't believe that this use fits the location," DiSalvo said.

Board Chair Rardin said the storage building could go into other areas of Cherry Hill where the zoning law permits such uses.

"It just doesn't fit with what we're trying to do with that area of Cherry Hill," he said.

The board allowed Prime to leave without a vote. Prime said they would go back to the drawing board and may come up with another plan in a month or two.

However, Rardin noted that the developer likely would continue to want a self-storage facility, which may be met with the same board opposition.

Cherry Hill 70 Partners LLC sought the use variance before proceeding with site-plan approvals.