A hearing before the Voorhees zoning board on a controversial car wash proposal has been postponed to January
The application was scheduled to be heard Thursday evening by the Voorhees zoning board, but it has been postponed to Jan. 28 because not enough board members will be present.
Eric Ascalon, a Cherry Hill open space and sustainable development advocate, is troubled by a San Diego developer’s plan to build a three-lane car wash at the Voorhees-Cherry Hill border at Evesham and White Horse Roads.
“It’s a doozy of an intersection,” said Ascalon, who grew up in Cherry Hill and has lived there all of his adult life. Ascalon was a community leader in the successful quest to permanently preserve from development the Holly Ravine Farm, which is near the northwest corner of the intersection and now owned by Cherry Hill Township.
» READ MORE: Holly Ravine will become farmland once more as Springdale Farm, the last farm in Cherry Hill, leases the land
“It’s not a well-thought-out plan,” Ascalon said of TNG Voorhees LLC’s request for a use variance for the residential part of the site that’s zoned rural residential by Voorhees.
The application was scheduled to be heard Thursday evening by the Voorhees zoning board, but it has been postponed to Jan. 28 because not enough board members will be present.
Ascalon, whose parents live in Voorhees, plans to testify before the board against the proposed exception to the zoning law.
He said a car wash that would look more at home on Route 73 or the White Horse Pike shouldn’t go at the intersection where Cherry Hill preserved the Holly Ravine Farm and Saddlehill Winery sits on the southeast corner in Voorhees.
Entrance/exit driveways would be installed on Evesham Road and White Horse Road, according to the developer’s plans. The intersection also is fed from Springdale Road on the Cherry Hill side.
The former Shell station at 1607 Evesham Rd. is owned by the developer. TNG and three others purchased the property from Voorhees Shell in 2017 for $1,658,112, according to Camden County property records.
The home at 1502 White Horse Rd. next to the Shell station would be demolished as part of the project. Although the developer’s zoning board application received by the township in August lists Ferriol C. Apistar and Crisanta B. Apistar as the owners, county property records show they sold the property in June to Granite Peak Property Investments LP of San Diego for $650,000.
The car wash building would be constructed where the home is now, and parking would go on the corner where the gas station sits.
Ascalon says it’s not surprising that the developer isn’t based in the area.
“They’re not locals, because if they were they’d realize how absurd this is,” he said of building a car wash at the busy intersection.
Inquirer South Jersey
70and73.com is a hyperlocal news site focused on South Jersey, including the communities of Cherry Hill, Evesham, Mount Laurel, Voorhees, Medford, Medford Lakes, and Moorestown.
