RON KARAFIN/Courier-Post Traffic moves through the business district along Haddon Avenue.

Designating seven areas for economic redevelopment in Haddon Township means tax breaks, grant eligibility, more businesses, physical improvements to existing buildings, roads and more.

Like many communities in the region, the township is taking advantage of a state program that assists municipalities in improving and revitalizing certain areas.

At the planning board's recommendation, the township commission was to vote this week on creating these seven districts.

The redevelopment areas include:

•Haddon Avenue from Stratford and French avenues to Locust Avenue;

•Cuthbert Boulevard and Emerald Avenue;

•Hopkins Road from Newton Creek to Newton Court;

•White Horse Pike from Clinton Avenue to Cuthbert Boulevard;

•Black Horse Pike from the Camden city border to Chestnut Avenue;

•Black Horse Pike from Grandview Avenue to the Mount Ephraim border;

•Crescent Boulevard from Gloucester City to the south branch of Timber Creek.

``You can bring a lot of high-profile businesses to the community and develop in a way that will best serve the community and stimulate the business districts,'' said township Mayor William Park. ``Good things can happen anytime you bring in new, fresh businesses to the community.''

Commissioner Walt Eife attended a League of Municipalities conference earlier this year and said he was overwhelmed by the amount of funding available for communities who are interested in economic redevelopment.

``I think with the right planning and working with the business community will fundamentally change the look of the avenue and the business districts for the better,'' Eife said. ``These things are initiatives to put money on the table.''

Eife points to the now vacant Westmont Theater, a township icon. A vision of grandeur in its day, the theater is now in desperate need of repair and purpose. Designating an economic redevelopment area in the Westmont Theater neighborhood would give developers even more incentives to come in, purchase the theater, restore it and showcase it as the grand dame it once was.

``I think it's a really good thing as long as they don't take my property from me,'' said Michael McSorley, who lives off Haddon Avenue on Albertson Avenue. His residential property backs up to the theater's parking lot.

But McSorley said the township needs economic redevelopment.

The township has already received a grant from Smart Growth and PATCO to study how to better use PATCO in the community.

The township commission also is scheduled to vote this week on an ordinance that would create three special business improvement districts in the township. Businesses in these districts would pay an extra 25 cents per $100 of assessed value for improvements in street-scape, such as better lighting and storefronts, as well as collective advertising in their own districts.

More than 40 residents attended a planning board meeting earlier this month, where Marc Shuster, the professional planner hired by the township, explained the redevelopment concepts.

``It's terribly exciting for me,'' Eife said. ``Developers coming into the town are happy about the economic redevelopment.''