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| Mount Laurel total population 1990: 30,270 2000: 40,221 Change: +32.87% Source: U.S. Census Bureau | ||
| Burlington County total population 1990: 395,066 2000: 423,394 Change: +7.17% Source: U.S. Census Bureau |
By MICHAEL T. BURKHART
Courier-Post Staff
A second wave of development rolled through western Burlington County in the 1990s, as it did a decade earlier, bringing office parks and sprawling residential developments to land where farms once stood.
Today, just a third of one percent of all 21.92 square miles within Mount Laurel remains farmland, property records show. And official estimates are that the township will be built out entirely in six to nine years.
"It's become a race with developers," said Township Manager Pat Halbe.
Only two to four and a half square miles of the community remain to be developed, officials said, as the eastern and western portions of the township are now dominated by homes with wetlands between them.
No wonder, then, that a debate is raging over the development of a very valuable township intersection at Marter Avenue and Route 38. The planned Centerton Square development would bring a heady, $100 million mix of retail, office and hotel buildings, and traffic, at the site.
Emmes Realty, the New York City developer, agreed to pay for $11 million worth of improvements to the intersection to pave the way for its proposal. But it has wrangled over $ 800,000 which the township wants for the extension of Briggs Road, about half a mile away.
"(Centerton) is not going to just have an impact on Mount Laurel," said Mayor Peter McCaffrey said. "It's going to have an impact on the region."
"It's coming and we know it's coming,'' Halbe said. ``We need to work as a partnership with whoever moves in there."
While Mount Laurel was the county's fourth largest largest municipality by population in 1990, it is now second, behind Evesham, after the population popped by another 33 percent during the decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Today, it is not just Mount Laurel's farmlands that are virtually gone, but growth, too, will become increasingly spare, officials say.
But growth was served during the '90s:
•A large, active senior population and senior housing units continued to increase, leading to the unveiling this September of a new township Senior Center.
•Businesses, like Cendant Mortgage, among the largest in the tri-county area, have helped create a community with widespread diversity.
•A new township library opened, tripling the amount of space available for residents to live, learn and lounge among literature. Now a new planning process is about to begin to better align its services with residents' needs.
•The Family Y opened, becoming a hub of life for thousands, and now finds itself sandwiched by the Centerton Square project and Moorestown development now under way.
•Schools, as they did in the 1980s, continued to rise.
"The labor pool is one significant factor in the township's growth," said Louis Glass, township planner. " Mount Laurel is also a hub. With I-295 and the turnpike, you can go in any direction."
With growth beginning to ebb, township officials want to attract new businesses. They also want to keep existing ones as commercial and industrial development are ripe to outpace residential growth this decade.
With three exits off I-295 and a turnpike interchange, Mount Laurel has been at the center of construction of light industrial parks and office space, McCaffrey said. The highway also makes commuting to Philadelphia possible.
The 17 industrial parks in the township are also nearly built to capacity. There are a few parcels in Bishops Gate but much of the Route 38 corridor is developed.
One area that has not kept pace has been the roads, officials said.
"I love living in Mount Laurel, but the traffic is horrendous," said Paula Morett, a 37-year resident.
Most main roads are maintained by the state - like routes 38 and 73 - or the county.
Over the years, many roads were widened and paved, but without solving problems like poor sight distance and inadequate intersection design.
It could have been worse.
In the 1970s, Mount Laurel's population was projected to top out one day at about 70,000, McCaffrey said. The latest projections are that 47,000 people, at most, will live in the township.
"I think (council) has done a lot of things to limit what will be built," Halbe said.
In the 1970s, officials began limiting growth by planning its spread, laying out exactly where industry, business parks and housing developments could locate and by banning high-rise apartments. Open space preservation has helped, setting aside 366 acres.
The township now has preserved 755 acres when park land is included.
As the result of two state Supreme Court rulings known as the Mount Laurel decisions, New Jersey municipalities must set aside a certain amount of housing for low- to moderate-income residents.
Mount Laurel's fair share was set at 839 units, McCaffrey said.
That number will change under a new formula in 2003.
A big step toward the housing quota was taken two years ago when the Ethel Lawrence development opened with about 110 low- to moderate-income homes.
"Mount Laurel has produced more affordable housing than any municipality in Burlington County," said Chris Norman, assistant Planning Board solicitor.
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