A court sent the Route 73 Wawa
back to the Voorhees board

A Camden County Superior Court judge has ordered the Voorhees Township Planning Board to take a second look at a Super Wawa proposed for northbound Route 73, a plan the board turned down last September over traffic on Cooper Road. The developer, NIKI-J&J Voorhees Cooper Partners LLC, sued the township in January. The two sides have since reached a tentative settlement under which the developer would make traffic improvements on Cooper Road, and Judge Steven J. Polansky signed the order on August 10.

The site sits on the Voorhees and Berlin Township line, about a quarter mile south of where Cooper Road meets Route 73, near an existing 7-11. The plan is a 5,915 square foot Wawa with 12 gasoline fueling stations on 4.95 acres, with driveways on both Route 73 and Cooper Road. Court documents place most of the store and the fuel pumps on the Berlin side of the line.

The order sets a clock rather than an outcome. Within 30 days the developer has to file revised plans that include the traffic improvement plan, along with a traffic report on what those improvements are expected to do to conditions in the area. A Planning Board hearing follows within 30 days of that filing, unless both sides agree to more time.

Berlin Township is working its own half of the property separately. The Berlin Township Planning and Zoning Board is set to consider the developer's application for preliminary and final major site plan approval for the portion of the project inside Berlin, at the municipal building on Route 73 South.

For an owner of highway commercial ground, the useful part here is the shape of the file rather than the store. A board decision is usually the end of a plan, but not always: a suit, a settlement and a set of off-site road improvements put this one back in front of the same board. A parcel that straddles two municipalities also answers to two boards on its own schedule, which is why the Berlin half is moving while the Voorhees half waits. Nothing on this corner is approved yet.

A court order to reconsider is not an approval. What a settlement or a board decision would mean for a specific property is a question for a licensed New Jersey attorney. Reported by 70and73.com. This is a summary in our own words; the full report is theirs.