Two Gloucester County Sprouts Farmers Market Grocery stores were approved by their respective Townships within three months of each other, and readers have been asking why the West Deptford location was able to move to full development so quickly, while the Washington Township location (which was approved first) has no construction activity at site.
West Deptford was approved in January of this year and construction started five months later. Washington Township received approval a few months earlier in October of 2023, and to date no construction activity is taking place at the site.
Some may find it easy to jump to the conclusion that the differences between the two projects are the individual Township processes, but that really isn’t a factor here… significantly it’s the properties that the buildings are being developed on, related to the amount of prior sitework that is already in place for each location.
And most will find it difficult to believe that Washington Township really has nothing to do with these final approvals and delays!
In short summary the scope of work (and needed approvals) for West Deptford related to roadway access, roadway improvements, as well as drainage… were mostly resolved 65 years ago when the Southwood Shopping Center was first developed.
The West Deptford Sprouts is being developed in an existing center, replacing a previous grocery store, and not changing any of the roadway access points… which reduces the number of approvals needed from other entities (and mostly just needing approval from the town!)
It’s a different story for the Washington Township Sprouts project, where the wooded property has never been developed and has no roadway access… which requires significant extra development and approvals regarding roadway access, roadway improvements, and drainage.
So if Washington Township government isn’t the approval hold-up, where is the final approval delay?
As of a November 19th review by Gloucester County’s Review Committee, the Washington Township Sprouts project has not met Gloucester County’s requirements for roadway improvements and drainage for the adjacent roadways the County owns, and it’s status remains as “Denied”.
I’ll add that I’ve heard from people associated with the project who tell me they expect an approval in early 2025.
Who Pays for Roadway Improvements?
I’ve covered this in other articles at a high-level before, but the roads that we drive on have different ownership entities which are typically; Towns, County, or New Jersey State.
For a proposed development project the town is the one giving the actual approval for the project and making sure it fits within the master plan and zoning of the property.
In many instances the Town approval can actually be the easiest part of the process!
You also need to consider that a new development whether it’s commercial or residential, can bring new traffic to an area or even just changes in required traffic patterns… and simply just because someone wants to build a positive development like a grocery store, doesn’t mean the government hands them a blank check for all of the necessary roadway and drainage improvements to accommodate the project.
As an example, consider the highly publicized planned new Sixers arena for Center City Philadelphia. One area of concern is that the Septa train station there would need tens of millions of dollars in improvements to handle the many thousands of arena visitors. With that need to upgrade the Septa station related to new commuters/visitors fully attributed to the private development of the Sixers arena, the Sixers project is paying for those necessary Septa improvements.
In the case of the Washington Township Sprouts project, both Egg Harbor Road and Hurffville-Grenloch roads that the extended shopping center sits on are owned, operated and maintained by Gloucester County. Incidentally the West Deptford project on Route 45… is a State highway so they likely were not reviewed by the County at all.
So with the Washington Township site along Gloucester County roads, the County gets an opportunity to review the projects to determine any potential impacts, as well as required improvements.
In other projects it could be a “State” highway which also needs there review and changes.. and things can get really tricky when a corner property sits at both a County and State roadway as both entities need to approve and at times work together! Also at times the Department of Environment has a strong say in full approval! But I digress.
In a weird way readers and locals should be happy that the Washington Township project is taking so long for final approvals, because effectively Gloucester County (who residents pay for with their taxes) is saying to the Sprouts development team “hey we’re happy to have you here and can’t wait for you to open in Washington Township, but we don’t want any new project negatively impacting our roadways, and where things need to be improved… the taxpayers are not paying for it. So let’s come to an agreement”
Sprouts Washington Township – Gloucester County
So a few weeks ago I put in an OPRA “Open Records” request with Gloucester County asking for documents between the developer and Gloucester County, related to open items for the County’s approval of Sprouts Washington Township.
A couple background items I learned from the documents:
First, while this is being developed as a separately owned project from Harbor Place, for approval processes it is considered part of the existing shopping center… particularly since traffic will be flowing between the older and newer shopping center sections which gives access to the side Hurffville-Grenloch Road.
Secondly, the county has guidelines for how many access points a shopping center can have to their roadways and it is called out that the center is already over those numbers. Ideally the County wants more customer traffic to utilize the to-be-developed access point at the traffic-signaled Salina Road intersection… particularly those who will be turning left into the the new development.
Third… while the new development will have on-site stormwater basins, it appears that emergency overflow would be directed to the already in place stormwater systems… which are also owned by Gloucester County! This introduces questions regarding potential water flow, status of the existing underground systems, and potential improvement cost.
And lastly it’s very clear that the county puts a lot of time and effort into these responses to developers, tracking exactly when they first asked for specific items to be taken care of and then noting that as of the most recent response which items were still not resolved… and therefore the County could not approve.
With the August 27th Gloucester County written response that I have in my possession, most of the more than a dozen items were initially asked for by the County back in March 2024.
Clearly the process has moved beyond these highlighted items from the end of August so likely additional aspects have been finalized, but I offer this summary list to readers to have an understanding of the details that are considered for a project like this:
- Egg Harbor Road access closest to main intersection to be change to “right in, right out” only. Site plan changes and no-left-turn ordinance are required.
- The TD Bank access point will remain as is, approved by Gloucester County. No Action Needed
- Cross-Access Easements between the old and new sections must be provided.
- A new Traffic Study is required, due to traffic pattern (access) changes.
- Signal timing changes need to account for recent timing modifications already completed along the roadway (to be covered by traffic study)
- County focused Roadway Plans need to be updated to represent all requested roadway changes, clearly showing new curbing and crosswalks with details on connection and design.
- Additional widening of the two County roads is not required. No Action Needed
- Traffic signal layout is good. The Township, County, and Applicant must execute and agreement.
Drainage is designed in accordance with current standards, however the emergency-overflow volume is directed towards the existing Egg Harbor Road stormwater systems. The county has concerns of private businesses utilizing County drainage systems and potentially causing impacts
- Evaluate proposed peak rate and volume of emergency flow into the County System
- Determine extent of County’s drainage system and discharge point.
- Check existing pipe inverts, sizes, and internal conditions. Damaged sections of pipes must be replaced (by developer)
- Evaluate hydraulic capacity of downstream systems to accommodate current and development emergency flow.
- Provide additional onsite water storage capacity.
- Adjust plans related to drainage work