Rivercove Age Limit Back to Planning Board for Formal Consideration

Rivercove’s age restriction is on track to get lifted, after the West Deptford Township Committee agreed to consider the matter and put it back in the hands of the planning board for formal consideration.

It could be months before a final decision is made, however, given the need to consider a number of potential issues related to opening the beleaguered apartment complex up to the general public, instead of just older residents.

“There’s some process we have to go through,” Mayor Anna Docimo said at the committee’s recent work session.

That process will likely involve input from the West Deptford’s planner, real estate experts and other professionals, said township administrator Eric Campo. Those people would weigh in on things like the potential effects on local schools, recreation options and the parking situation, all things that were brought up as concerns in in the process.

“There are still a number of items to be addressed," Campo said. "It would behoove the applicant to seek professional opinions of these changes.”

Grove Street Realty Urban Renewal, LLC, the company that built and manages Rivercove, has called pulling the age restriction a necessary step.

“At this point, it’s survival for us,” Thomas Hedenberg, managing member of the firm, said in a letter to the planning board in June. “We need to have something happen with that property.”

Grove Street, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2010, owes about $740,000 in back taxes for 2010 and 2011, and has faced steep raises in its insurance rates because of low occupancy—just 34 units out of 199 were rented as of June.

Campo didn’t have an exact timeline for lifting the age restriction, but didn’t expect it to be a quick turnaround.

"I imagine it would be a several-month process at minimum," he said.

Any changes that are decided for Rivercove’s site plan would have to be formalized in an ordinance, which would have to pass a vote by the township committee.