Residential area ‘no longer viable’
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
An ordinance that would change the zoning from residential to commercial on a 37-acre parcel on the corner of Quakerbridge Road and Lawrence Station Road was introduced by Township Council Tuesday night.
The ordinance is headed to the Planning Board for comment and then back to Township Council for a public hearing and final action. The council tentatively is set to hold a public hearing on the ordinance at its April 2 meeting.
The parcel is currently zoned Planned Village Development 3, which permits age-restricted residential developments. The ordinance would change the zoning to Highway Commercial, which would allow retail uses.
The Planning Board had already considered the suggestion to change the land use from residential to commercial last year. The board gave its stamp of approval to modify the township Master Plan to change the designation from residential to commercial in September 2012 the first step in rezoning the land.
United States Land Resources LLP, which owns the property, wrote to Lawrence Township officials last year to request a change in the zoning. The property owner wrote that the present residential zoning “is not viable in the present economy” because the demand for age-restricted housing has diminished since the land was rezoned for that purpose in 2005.
United States Land Resources LLP’s letter to township officials also indicated that Costco Wholesale Corp. had expressed interest in locating one of its stores on the parcel, and that’s why the request for rezoning was being made.
Township planning consultant Philip Caton told the Planning Board last year that he agreed with the property owner’s contention that residential zoning for the site is not viable. He told the board that it is unlikely that a developer would step forward to build age-restricted housing.
Mr. Caton also told the Planning Board last year that residential development on the site would have included affordable housing units. Lawrence Township has exceeded its quota of providing 891 units of affordable housing, which had been imposed on it by the state Council on Affordable Housing.
A pair of New Jersey state Supreme Court rulings issued in the 1980s, known informally as the Mount Laurel and Mount Laurel II decisions, require municipalities to provide their fair share of affordable housing.

