Haddonfield's HPC Tables Brandywine Nursing Home Expansion Application

The Haddonfield Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) on Wednesday delayed a vote on a proposal to expand a Warwick Road nursing home after a nearly three-hour meeting.

HPC members said they wanted to visit Brandywine Senior Living at 132 Warwick Rd. before ruling on a Certificate of Historical Appropriateness for the project, which is within Haddonfield's historic district.

This was the second time officials from Brandywine Senior Living had appeared before the commission. They were denied approval in May by a 3-2 vote because some members, including Chairwoman Lee Albright, thought the nursing home was a nonconforming use and the expansion was too big. A nursing home has operated on the site since 1952.

Brandywine wants to from 23,378 square feet to 35,569, about a 65 percent increase. The footprint of the building will grow from 9,880 square feet to 15,151, a nearly 63 percent increase. These dimensions were reduced by several hundred feet from the proposal presented to the planning board last month.

The vote to table the application Wednesday was unanimous, but the consensus on the panel was far from it.

"I'm ready to vote on this now," said commission member Susan Reintzel. "I believe that progress and preservation can complement each other and I believe that this particular project demonstrates that to a great extent. I think that Brandywine has done an outstanding job in taking in the concerns of the neighborhood as well as the concerns of our commission."

Reintzel's view was not widely shared among a cadre of neighbors near the site who have launched a campaign to sink or rein in the expansion. Signs recently started popping up on lawns around the borough saying "Think Outside the Brandywine 'Box;' Bigger is Not Better."

The signs came from Preservation Haddonfield, a resident group that promotes historic preservation. The front facade of the Brandywine Home is a registered historic property. Preservation Haddonfield is led by David Gottardi, a neighbor of the site.

Another neighbor, Tony Van Dervort, a Moore Lane resident, summed up their concerns.

"I do support renovation of the project, without expanding the footprint," he said.

About a dozen residents gave public comments during the hearing. Several supported Brandywine.

"Our community should continue the tradition of a care facility for the elderly in this location," said Betty McMichael, a West End Avenue resident who once had a relative in the Haddonfield Home, as the facility was called before Brandywine took over operations. "Brandywine has shown incredible patience and creativity in planning the reconstruction of this property and its impact on its neighbors. It is now time to permit Brandywine to begin construction."

"What Brandywine has done has more than improved what is existing there," said Mary Ann McMahon, who has lived across the street from the property for many years. "I'd much rather have senior-citizen neighbors than have boisterous people that are going to cause riots or problems."

The HPC is an advisory board to the borough planning board, which has the final say on the project. The planning board decided to send the application back to the HPC last month because Brandywine officials scaled back designs for rebuilding its facility between the time it was denied by the HPC in May and when they appeared before the planning board. Brandywine is scheduled to appear again before the planning board again on Sept. 4.

A company lawyer said the planning board will have to rule what happens next, but they are willing to work with the HPC in the interim. A site visit is scheduled for Sept. 14 and an HPC ruling on Sept. 19.

"Any delay delays the ability of our residents who were living in that building to return home," Brenda Bacon, Brandywine's CEO said after the hearing. "Any delay prevents us from providing those services. We have to build, we have the winter coming on and the delay is unfortunate. But we remain committed to doing everything that the borough asks of us."

Brandywine's effort even appears to be gaining some headwind with Albright, who voted against the project in May.

"They're getting closer," she said. "They're putting a lot of good effort into it and providing us with the information we need to make the right decision."

Brandywine is prepared to spend up to $16 million to renovate the Warwick Road site. It has other facilities in New Jersey, including Moorestown, and five other states. The for-profit company expects to pay $320,000 a year in taxes to Haddonfield yearly if the project is approved. The previous owner of the facility, formerly known as the Haddonfield Home, was a nonprofit company and paid no municipal taxes.