Old Kmart Best For Affordable Housing, Moorestown Resident Says

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Another Moorestown resident is weighing in on the proposed affordable housing site on Route 38. Chris Doyle suggests the site, which proposes 76 units, 75 of which would meet affordable housing obligations, should go in the old Kmart shopping center. Doyle’s letter to the editor can be found below.

To the Editor:

Unable to attend, but having watched the entire video posted from last week's board meeting on the Pennrose housing development on Route 38, I wondered who, besides Pennrose, is in favor of this project moving forward.

The board members seem resigned to a position that some bad medicine is better than the possibility of having to take more and not a single resident that was able to speak, spoke in support of the project.

After hearing the discussion and all the challenges and shortfalls of the proposed location, I see this as less “not in my backyard” and more “who thought this was a good idea for the long term of the residents both incoming and existing?”

I wonder who thought that the best solution was to shoehorn 76 units into a plot barely large enough with clear drainage and access issues? Who thought the best solution was a housing unit placed without practical access to any town amenity? Who thought the best solution was one where nearly everything the community would require would have to be created from scratch, tailor made for that community?

Where did this town’s problem solvers and idea makers go? As merchants flee the mall and leave it and its border strips vacant, one can’t help but wonder if there is a solution waiting to be tapped? We all know that the near empty Kmart shopping center will remain a ghost town for years with periods of possible respite as Spirit Halloween brings its month-long circus to town. What does the Kmart shopping center have that the Pennrose site doesn’t?

The answer is nearly everything. Real walking distance to stores, restaurants, and two supermarkets. Direct access to potential places of employment as well as public transportation in multiple directions. Direct access to Strawbridge lake recreation without having to cross Route 38 as was mentioned in the town hall meeting.

The Kmart shopping center would provide more than enough space for parking, fire/emergency access, recreation such as biking and walking paths, a playground, grilling, and other outdoor space without any concerns for drainage, increased traffic, noise barriers, or height abnormalities.

Beyond the obvious price difference of the land, one hurdle would be finding space for the remaining tenants to move from the rapidly dilapidating shopping center. I can’t see it taking too much convincing to work deals to move the few remaining stores across the street to newer, more accessible, more populated sections.

After all, there are plenty of vacancies such as the former Thomasville Furniture store, the former Party City, and of course, the mall itself which has ample, painfully obvious empty space. The deals are out there to be made, the solutions are out there to be had. The current Kmart property pays $415K in property taxes. At nearly three times the acreage, there is room to create a mixed, inclusionary zone with the remaining units more than making up for the current tax rate.

The proposed Pennrose site is not in my backyard but it is for others, and coming in like a bull in a china shop with lawsuits in hand is hardly a way to endear oneself to the community. The state has given Moorestown a mandate, and I feel the board, in most circumstances, has done an admirable job of applying the state’s requirements in a practical manner, with the exception being the Pennrose site.

Considering the town’s obligations and what may be best for the community’s future needs, there certainly are better locations available to be repurposed than a waterlogged, undeveloped plot in a traffic soaked, residential zone of Route 38. Give the Kmart site some thought. With some creativity and some deal making, it could be a much better, more long-term approach toward doing what Moorestown often does best, leading by example.

Chris Doyle
Moorestown resident

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