At the end of July, Moorestown’s Mayor Lisa Petriello and Deputy Mayor Nicole Gillespie penned a letter outlining why the Miles Technology site on Route 38 – the proposed replacement for the Pennrose site – was a good fit to develop affordable housing. At its most recent meeting, Moorestown Township Council announced the site might not be the township’s best fit after all.
Last Monday, council chose not to act on an ordinance zoning Miles Technology, located on the corner of Route 38 and Pleasant Valley Avenue, for 75 affordable housing units. Petriello explained that council is currently exploring “another good faith option,” but council did not provide the location of the new site as the location is still being investigated.
The meeting was standing-room-only as members of a newly formed nonprofit, Resident Action Coalition, were out in full force to express their dismay with the Miles site. While the ordinance was not acted on, council did open the public hearing affording community members the opportunity to comment on the proposed development.
Erin Nowak, a member of the Resident Action Coalition, said the group is a community-led response to “the threat of bad governance.” She said they’re demanding transparency and due diligence when making multimillion-dollar deals with developers and are prepared to intervene with legal action to hold council accountable.
“We’re an incorporated, New Jersey nonprofit committed to Moorestown’s beautification to ensure safe affordable housing consistent with the architectural vernacular and Quaker character special to our township,” Nowak said.
She said the coalition sees affordable housing as an opportunity to keep “distressed families, starving artists and recent college graduates” in the area, and it’s asking council to use a “resident-led approach” to fully incorporate their new neighbors into the town.
“We have a community engaged in making sure our new residents are not out of place,” Nowak said.
Fellow coalition member Gregory Lane said the members take issue with the site’s isolated location. He said the Miles site is not near any other residential zone and on a major highway.
“It creates an isolated, separated – call it whatever you want – you’re creating a community whose only characteristic is that it’s low-income,” Lane said. “I know what that seems like to me. You can decide what it means to you.”
Lane said, in his eyes, the site has obvious safety issues. He said pedestrians and children attempting to cross heavily traveled Route 38 to get to school or to downtown is a hazardous situation. He said the township is proceeding with a traffic study done by the developer during a time of the year when school is out of session, many residents are away on vacation and the volume is not a true representation of what the traffic is like for the majority of the year.
Resident Craig Roberts said when he moved to Union Street in 1988, he wasn’t even aware that there was affordable housing in the area because it had been seamlessly integrated into the neighborhood. He said the area is a prime example of affordable housing being done responsibly.
“To me, it just seems wrong that we’re warehousing people in a commercial area,” Roberts said. “It’s never going to be residential. It’s not the spirit of affordable housing.”
Not everyone who spoke was opposed to the site, however. Resident Monique Begg said, in her eyes, the Miles site is a better fit than Pennrose, which was a swampy environment to put people on. She said neighbors were opposed to the Pennrose site, neighbors were opposed to the Nagle site and now neighbors are opposed to the Miles site.
“It’s never going to change no matter which site you pick,” Begg said.
Resident Kathy Sutherland said she didn’t agree that residents are going to feel isolated living on the other side of town.
“The bottom line is these people are not going to be segregated,” Sutherland said. “They are part of the community because plenty of people live on the other side of Moorestown, and they don’t feel segregated.”
Coalition member Joseph DeLorenzo inquired with what seriousness council is looking at an alternative site. He wondered if council’s announcement is just a delay or if it will be back in the same spot a few weeks from now.
“As a matter of transparency, town council owes it to its citizens to tell us what’s going on,” DeLorenzo said.
Gillespie said there’s information they’d like to share more widely, but they can’t because of pending litigation. She said council doesn’t enter into closed session to hide information from the public.
“It is complex; we’re doing everything we can to do the right thing by the town,” Gillespie said.
Councilwoman Victoria Napolitano said council promises to keep working on the issue and they hope to have an answer as to which direction they’re going in by their next meeting.
The next meeting of Moorestown Township Council will take place on Monday, Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.
