Commissioners Frank Troy (left) and Dave Siedell voted yes on the construction of 98 rental units, including 12 affordable-housing units.
Tensions ran high during the Feb. 10 meeting of borough commissioners, as Frank Troy and Dave Siedell voted in favor of a resolution to adopt a purchase and sale agreement – as well as a redevelopment agreement – for the Bancroft property.
Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich was not in attendance for the nearly four-hour meeting due to a preplanned flight.
Woodmont Properties is the official redeveloper of the site. Plans include the construction of 98 rental units, of which 86 will be market rate units and 12 will be affordable-housing. They will be spaced across three buildings: one carriage-style structure that runs along the berm by Kings Highway and two four-story residential buildings. There will be 210 parking spaces, including garages and surface-level areas.
The borough’s redevelopment counsel, Matt Jessup, stated that the plan’s numbers are down from previous iterations, which called for 120 units and four buildings. Additionally, the borough is retaining ownership of more acreage than initially anticipated. Haddonfield is selling six acres of the Bancroft property to Woodmont instead of 8.2, and will own seven acres instead of only 4.95.
The purchase price for those six acres is $4.3 million. In lieu of paying conventional taxes on the property, Woodmont will pay a percentage of the annual gross revenue – from rent, parking, storage, etc. – for a 30-year period. The percentage will be 10% for the first 10 years, 11 for the next five, 12 for five years and 13 for the last five years.
Jessup explained that the deal will result in a payment to the borough of approximately $18.76 million over the three decades.
At the Bancroft property, there will be 98 rental units spread across three buildings, in addition to 210 parking spaces.
During public comment at the commissioners’ session, a number of residents made their disapproval of the project known. Overarching concerns included the lack of age restrictions on the apartments, the possibility of overcrowding in local schools, the maintenance of the property’s historical significance (the stone building will be retained) and fear that the plan will be the start of high-density development in Haddonfield.
“This is not the town’s legacy,” one resident said, while another described the redevelopment as a travesty. Others took great issue with Bezich’s absence from an important meeting, but the mayor had informed the community at a previous commissioners session that she might not arrive in time for the vote.
While some residents urged Troy and Siedell to vote no on the redevelopment plan and go back to the drawing board, they stressed that there simply was no more time. In late December, the commissioners were court ordered, in a case with the Fair Share Housing Center, to adopt the purchase and sale and redevelopment agreements with Woodmont, or face a builder’s remedy lawsuit.
Both commissioners admitted to not loving the approved agreements. But if they were to vote no and violate the court order, they’d essentially lose all say in how the Bancroft property is redeveloped.
“If we don’t take action on this, tomorrow, we lose the battle and we lose the war, 100%,” explained Troy, who initially voted against the plan last May. “What we vote on tonight represents a little bit of everything. We increased open space to where it’s a majority of the space at 54% versus 40%, where it was before. It hit the mark for lower density than what it originally was, from 120 down to 98. It got it in line with roughly the number of cars and parking spots that used to be there when Bancroft was there.
“And the driving force for me, really where it’s always been,” he added, “is more or less tax neutrality, or as close to tax neutrality, trying to make it cost neutral to the residents … I don’t think anyone is in love with this. That’s kind of the way a negotiation and a compromise works. In the end, no one truly likes what they got, but they’re willing to live with it and kind of go about their business.”
Siedell echoed Troy’s sentiments, explaining that the redevelopment plan is the best the borough has had since Bancroft sold the property years prior to Brian O’Neill, founder of Recovery Centers of America.
“And it still sucks,” Siedell acknowledged. “It’s the best we could do, not just with the time we had, because we’ve had 20 years. This is the best we could do once the ball got rolling the day Bancroft sold to O’Neill. Here we are and, like I said earlier, it sucks.
“But here we are.”
Looking ahead, once construction commences, a Woodmont representative will be in attendance at a commissioners meeting once a quarter to give updates on the project and highlight what’s on the schedule for the next quarter.
