Voorhees board says 77 homes
do not fit the town's master plan.

Voorhees Township's Planning Board has voted 5 to 0 to find the Carriage House redevelopment plan inconsistent with the Township Master Plan. The plan would allow a maximum of 77 new age-restricted dwelling units on a site that today holds the former Carriage House restaurant and some single family homes, roughly three quarters of a mile from the Lindenwold PATCO station.

The vote is not a denial. As the board's own solicitor explained at the meeting, Township Committee can revise the plan or move forward with it anyway, because the Planning Board has no veto over the committee on density. The redevelopment plan is the start of the process rather than the end of it, and the 77 units could only be proposed later, in a site plan application that would still need clearance from state and other outside agencies.

The reasons given on the record were environmental concerns about the site, the density itself, a need for more information from the township planner, and the fact that the review had run past the application's completeness deadline. The underlying zoning is the township's Office Retail Business zone, which permits commercial and office uses, and the minutes note the property had never been zoned as environmentally sensitive.

For anyone following new construction in Camden County, the vote that sets density on this site is Township Committee's.

A consistency finding is a recommendation, not an approval or a denial. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson, from the Voorhees Township Planning Board minutes.