Preliminary approval for 72 affordable apartments
off Kings Highway in Woolwich.

Woolwich Township has cleared the way for 72 affordable housing units on Block 16, Lot 5, off Kings Highway. The Joint Land Use Board granted minor subdivision and preliminary site plan approval to Park Grove Development, LLC on a unanimous roll call, and memorialized it in Resolution #2026-11 the following month. The vote came after the applicant moved a retaining wall out of the front yard setback and the stormwater basins out of the wetlands buffer, which removed the variances the plan would otherwise have needed.

The groundwork was laid the previous August, when the Township Committee adopted two ordinances on the same night, each by three votes to two. The first amended the Kings Landing Redevelopment Plan and the zoning map. The second approved the application and financial agreement for a long-term tax exemption with PG Woolwich Urban Renewal, LLC for the construction of an affordable housing project on that block and lot. Both nights drew residents to the microphone, most of them on the same subject: the intersection of Garwin Road and Route 322, and what more traffic would do to it.

The plan answers that in part. Access is from Kings Highway, and the Garwin Road connection is gated for emergency use only, with a Knox box rather than bollards or a chain. The applicant's traffic engineer updated the study with school-year counts and other approved projects in the area, and extended the modeled build date to 2030. Whether Garwin Road ever becomes a full access point is left as a township decision that would have to come back to the board as an amended site plan.

The word to hold onto is preliminary. A preliminary approval settles the shape of the plan; a final one settles the details, and here the details still open include the walking path on the Garwin Road side, where the monument signs go, and an agreement with the utility company over a pipeline crossing the property. Separately, in March the board adopted an amendment to the township's housing element and fair share plan, which counts 248 credits against a 241 unit obligation. These 72 units are part of that count, which is the reason a project like this is on the calendar at all.

Summary of Woolwich Township Joint Land Use Board and Township Committee minutes. Approvals, plans and schedules can change. South Jersey New Construction does not represent this project. Written by Justin Kelly, NJ Real Estate Broker-Salesperson, from the Woolwich Township Joint Land Use Board meeting minutes.