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Members of the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) visited the Brandywine Senior Living facility on Warwick Road in Haddonfield on Friday, Sept. 14 to tour the amended site plan.
The HPC previously rejected an expansion request from the facility in late May.
The visit, said Chairperson Lee Albright, was helpful to the commission.
“Brandywine really bent over backwards to answer all of our concerns,” she said following the roughly hour-long tour of the grounds.
Tomorrow, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Borough auditorium, the commission will make their decision.
The existing structure, which was built in 1953, has hallways that are too narrow for two elderly residents to travel in opposing directions at the same time with wheelchairs, said Brenda Bacon, president and CEO of Brandywine Senior Living.
The rooms are small and do not have individual showers. Residents would have to utilize hall showers. In addition, there is only one elevator.
“We can’t have seniors living here in these conditions,” Bacon said.
The building, which previously was the Haddonfield Home, has been uninhabited since June 1, she said.
Following the HPC’s decision, Brandywine will appear again before the planning board on Oct. 1. If the planning board approves of the reconstruction plans, they will then look to the zoning board for approval.
Bacon is confident that the borough has understood Brandywine’s efforts to make the site plan better.
“I never think of the negative,” she said of the possibility of the plan being rejected.
In the existing structure, there are 52 units and beds for residents. The capacity for beds would expand to 58 in the reconstruction with showers in the handicap accessible rooms.
Brandywine has proposed an underground parking garage that would hold 22 vehicles with three spots remaining above ground. There are currently 19 above ground parking spaces on site.
The replacement structure calls for more than the current 182 trees on the property, according to the revised HPC submission dated Aug. 10.
It is important for the residents to have access to natural light, said Bacon, and thus walk out terraces would be constructed. Currently, the structure only has a basement recreation room.
On holidays, Bacon said, the facility would coordinate with area churches for overflow parking and a shuttle to avoid the possibility of visitors parking on Moore Lane.
Excluding underground parking, the two-floor brick addition would be a total of 40,098 square feet.
Below ground, the operational space would be 11,105 square feet.
The reconstruction would approximately cost $15 million to $16 million, she said, and would be completed over the period of eight to nine months.
Brandywine has been aggressively contacting neighbors to share the plans and address concerns, she said, and many have voiced their support in their goal to provide quality care to senior citizens.
“It’s worth our efforts,” she said.
