One Part Of Haddon Sprouts Farmers Market OK'd, Another Pending

HADDON TOWNSHIP, NJ — The Haddon Township Planning/Zoning Board recently approved one component of the proposed Sprouts Farmers Market located within Westmont Plaza and tabled a decision on another.

Representatives of the grocery store recently asked for permission to make several improvements to the existing site, starting with removing 9,354 square feet of the building east of the Target store that Sprouts Farmers Market wishes to occupy.

"This will allow for loading and unloading for the facility," Cornelius Brown, an engineer for Sprouts Farmers Market, said at a recent zoning/planning board meeting. "There will be a fenced- in area and an emergency generator .... There's also pavement and parking lot improvements along the storefront, there will be replacement of the existing sidewalk [that will allow] for barrier free or [Americans With Disabilities] access."

One zoning/planning board member, Jose Calves, noted that Sprouts Farmers Market's proposal comes with an additional positive.

It "is a bit of a no-brainer, because as the experts mentioned, it is less space, but it is more in compliance with the current [town] ordinance that is there now," Calves said.

The zoning/planning board approved that part of Sprouts Farmers Market's plan.

When it came to the current Sprouts Farmers Market's signage for the store's site, some expressed concerns, such as using the company using the terms 'farmer's market' and 'local' in the same sign.

"People go to a farmers market expecting local farmer's products, and they go in there and the farmers have pineapples," said Marguerite Downham, a zoning/planning board member. "I know there are not local fresh pineapples in New Jersey."

James Stevenson, an employee of Haddon Township, said he was more concerned that some of the current Sprouts Farmers Market's signage is not large enough to be seen by traffic on nearby Cuthbert Boulevard. Thus, he felt residents may spend their food budget in other municipalities.

"Haddon Township had three supermarkets at one point," Stevenson said. "Supermarkets in that location have not down well. The sign package is critical."

The lawyer representing Sprouts Farmers Market, Amy Ferrell, said she would discuss the zoning/planning board's concerns about the signage with the company and circle back, hopefully with changes that are suitable to the township.

The next meeting of the zoning/planning board is scheduled for Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

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