Beaver Avenue in Mount Laurel from Route 73. Vehicles now cannot enter Walmart from Beaver Avenue, but an exit toward the Route 73 end permits right turns only to get to Route 73. The driveway area to the right is where the car wash would be built.
Drive around the residential suburban enclave in Mount Laurel near Beaver and Oregon avenues and it is hard to believe the neighborhood is hemmed in by a Super Walmart and Route 73.
Trees and greenery are lush and the streets are quiet and remarkable for their lack of traffic. Oregon Avenue dead ends in woods at the Route 73 end and Walmart restricts traffic on Beaver Avenue, with a gate shutting off a driveway.
About 3â…“ acres of woods and brush serve as a natural buffer for neighbors from the highly developed commercial area in the Fellowship Redevelopment Area, which the Township decided in 2011 should be an area where development is encouraged.
But the neighborhood could face change this Thursday when two different developers are scheduled to appear before the Township Planning Board with plans that would clear much of the wooded area.Â
The yellow outline is the proposed site of the storage facility and the orange outline is the proposed site of the car wash. There would be no direct access to the car wash from Route 73.
Nuvo Development Partners LLC of Winter Park, Florida is proposing to clear about 1.8 acres and build a three-story, 100,000-square-foot self-storage facility on one of the sites. The storage facility is considered large, according to industry standards shared by development sites on the internet. The average size of a self-storage facility is around 50,000 square feet.
"All proposed land development will occur on previously undisturbed, wooded land," according to an environmental impact statement prepared for the developer by Van Note-Harvey Associates of Princeton, New Jersey. About two-thirds of the site will be covered by new impervious surfaces, according to the report.
On about 1.5 acres bordering the storage facility development, and facing Route 73, would be a 4,625-square-foot Tommy's Express Car Wash by Chesapeake Pines NJ 1 LLC of Salt Lake City, Utah, according to the Planning Board agenda. The site is partly wooded and largely covered by the concrete of a former gasoline station.
Access to each development would be from Beaver Avenue.
However, a traffic review of the storage facility for the board by Remington & Vernick Engineers of Cherry Hill noted some confusion over an access road connecting to Oregon Avenue in the plans.
"The applicant's engineer should provide testimony indicating if this connection will be for emergency access only or will this connection serve as a secondary means of accessing the site," the traffic review by Planning Board engineer Michael Angelastro stated.
Today, Oregon Avenue in Mount Laurel dead ends in woods, with Route 73 on the other side.Â
The developer of the car wash, at 912 Route 73, seeks preliminary and final major site plan approval with bulk variances. The storage facility applied for preliminary and final site plan approval.
Happy Rock Merchant Solutions LLC of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, owns the site for the storage facility, according to the developer's Planning Board application. The car wash site is owned by 912 Rt. 73 S. Mount Laurel LLC of Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to the application.
Board members on Thursday will hear testimony from the storage facility developer first and then the car wash developer, according to the meeting agenda. The public also is given the opportunity to testify about projects. Plans and other documents for the two projects are available through the Township website. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
A closed gate, signs and orange cones all block access to or from the Walmart from Beaver Avenue.
Plans for the car wash.
Site plans for the storage facility.
