Phase II of road project begins
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
12/12/2009

With the amount of development and activity springing up on both sides of Haddonfield Road, the township is gathering information and public suggestions to help make the corridor more accessible, safer, and convenient for motorists and pedestrians.

Phase II of the Haddonfield Road Study will hopefully lead to a template that future developments can follow to make the commercial area more connected and seamless, Township Planner Natalie Shafiroff said.

“We see the benefit in making this a very cohesive area. We look at an opportunity to create a center for Cherry Hill, creating a shopping or retail boulevard, something to draw shoppers to our area,” Shafiroff said.

Running directly through the Garden State Parkway development and up past the Cherry Hill Mall, Haddonfield Road is one of the most traversed roadways in Cherry Hill. In the past 10 years the corridor surrounding Haddonfield Road has seen extensive development, through the Garden State Parkway area and the multi-million dollar expansion of the mall.

This phase focuses on the stretch of Haddonfield Road from Rt. 38 to Church Road, Chief of Staff Dan Keashen said. The overall plan strives to improve the safety of Haddonfield Road for pedestrians, its aesthetics, signage, and the overall community, he said.

It’s an important piece of work for the township, he said, because the area is quickly becoming a desirable retail destination for shoppers.

“That corridor there on Haddonfield Road, even in a down economy, they’re looking at doing a billion dollars’ worth of retail sales between the park, mall, and everything in between,” Keashen said. “We are looking to see how we can make enhancements to the area and the roadway to deal with larger volumes of traffic and create the opportunity to use public transportation and have it be more pedestrian friendly.”

Simple measures, such as the county installing safer “zebra striped” crosswalks, can go a long way toward increasing visitors to the area and their ability to travel throughout the developments, Shafiroff said. Coordinating the stop lights on the road can also help improve traffic flow and the traffic backups that can occur on the busy roadway. Shafiroff stressed that no changes were imminent and a rumor that the roadway would be widened was untrue.

Most business owners and residents suggested simple improvements in the signage of the area and its aesthetics would help as well, Keashen said. The roadway is fairly utilitarian in nature, he said, and could stand to be more appealing to visitors.

When completed, the plan should provide a template for future development. During the early days of the Garden State Parkways development, Shafiroff said it was mainly a hodgepodge collection of individual stores and business. More now, and hopefully even more in the future, developers will follow the plan’s template to fit into an easy to navigate community, she said.

“What we’re looking to do is create a town center. We’re looking to create a center that is identifiable and has a brand for us that makes Cherry Hill a destination,” Shafiroff said. “Haddonfield Road will become the destination, it will be where people want to go for entertainment, restaurants, and shopping; everything under the sun in one place.”