Rivercove Owners Make Last-Ditch Pitch to Township Comittee

Representatives for the owners of the beleaguered apartment complex made a last-minute, last-ditch effort to prod the West Deptford committee to action Thursday night, pushing for the adoption of an ordinance to make it possible for them to hold on to the property and settle $1 million in back taxes.

Jim Maley, attorney for Grove Street Realty Urban Renewal, said passage of the ordinance, which would amend the redevelopment plan and remove an over-55 age requirement, was critical to keeping the project on its feet.

“If we don't have this movement by the end of the year, it's going to blow up,” said Maley, who also is Collingswood's mayor.

While he acknowledged the lateness of the move, coming more than five months after the company , and two months after , Maley insisted a new deal was in place to get those back taxes paid – the company has an annual $386,000 Payment in Lieu of Taxes program in place, meaning Grove Street is around three years behind on payments – and warned the process would become difficult if that deal fell apart.

“We're making this request because of deadlines from the company that has the financing on the property right now,” he said. “With an amendment to this plan, the township's finances can get paid and this project can get back on a stable footing.”

Mayor Anna Docimo, who was presiding over her final meeting before retirement from township government, blasted Grove Street for not providing information on the major issues the planning board and committee had raised about lifting the age restriction–the effects on schools and plans for parking at the complex, among others.

“The plan has not been adopted because we do not have all the information we need,” she said.

Township administrator Eric Campo said that lack of information is what kept him from putting the matter back on the table.

“I'm not sure the committee was willing to consider this without those fundamental aspects provided to them,” he said. “I was not in a position to place this ordinance at this time, given that those hurdles have not yet been addressed by the applicant.”

Maley said Grove Street had completed a study on how township schools would be affected, and said the difficulty in presenting an amended site plan to the planning board lay in the fact that the redevelopment plan would govern that site plan–so an amendment to the redevelopment plan has to be in place first.

“We've been in a little Catch-22,” he said.

Maley continued to press for adoption of the ordinance Grove Street drafted, but Docimo balked at the idea.

“We can't make spur-of-the-moment decisions,” she said.

While Maley had insisted the ordinance would have to be introduced Thursday night to have a chance at a second reading and passage, there are still two committee meetings–a special meeting Dec. 14 and a closeout meeting Dec. 29–before the end of the year, meaning the committee could still pass a first and second reading of the ordinance and amend the redevelopment plan before the end of the year.