Town Council passes three development plans on second reading

In other news, the township heard back from a traffic study for three Medford roads.

At last Tuesday’s Medford Town Council meeting, plans for the Hartford Square, Stokes Square and Arc Wheeler redevelopment areas were approved on second reading.

The Hartford Square redevelopment area is located near the intersection of Hartford Road and Route 70. The development will take place on open space between the CVS store and a wooded area along Hartford Road. The redevelopment plan calls for a 70-unit, 100 percent affordable housing development. The rental units will be available for seniors, veterans and disabled individuals.

The Arc Wheeler plan would add 210 units of market-rate housing and 90 units of affordable housing to a property along Medford-Evesboro Road near the border with Evesham Township. The property consists of open space and is located near an Evesham Township municipal yard.
The Stokes Square redevelopment area is located along Himmelein Road near the intersection with Stokes Road. The redevelopment plan allows for the construction of 120 independent senior living apartment units. This redevelopment plan does not include any affordable units, but calls for the developer to contribute to the township’s affordable housing trust fund to subsidize the other affordable housing developments.
At the July 26 planning board meeting, township planner Michelle Taylor said $900,000 would be contributed to the trust fund and go toward the construction of the Arc Wheeler affordable housing units.

In other news:

• Council was briefed on the results of traffic studies performed on three roads by the Medford Police Department and Township Engineer Chris Noll.
• The first road studied was Hawkin Road, from Skeet road to Southampton. Noll recommended the speed limit, 25 mph, be upped to 35 mph due to a lack of driveways or residences on that stretch of the road.
• The second road studied was East Centennial Drive. According to Noll, residents had requested speed humps put on the road to curb speeding. The study revealed there is indeed a speeding issue on the road and that changes would need to be made. However, because the road is eight-10ths of a mile long, Noll said there would need to be 11–12 speed humps put in for them to be effective, which would result in a lot of noise. Instead, Noll suggested restriping the center lines and placing optical speed bars in areas of the road where speeding was most prevalent. He suggested another study be conducted three to six months after the changes to gather further information.
• The last road studied was New Freedom Road between Eayrestown Road and the Southampton border. The traffic study found no speeding issues on the road, as most drivers were going approximately the 50 mph posted speed limit. However, Noll suggested the speed limit to be lowered to 40 mph because of the excessive number of driveways.
• Five residents applied to the two open positions on the town’s Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee. The town plans to conduct interviews soon.
• The following new EMS members were approved: Colleen Kazokas, Donna Stanish and Max Van Doren
• The following new junior firefighters were approved: Aiden Cohen (Station 251), Nicholas Wagner (Station 252) and Taylor Miliano (Station 252).