PATCO’s plan for Woodcrest
By JENNIFER KELLEY
Cherry Hill Sun
7/2/2007

Township officials weary, while PATCO wishes to improve upon the past

Would replacing the acres of asphalt surrounding PATCO’s Woodcrest station with a landscaped office park and a couple of freestanding parking garages be a benefit or burden for the township?

Currently, Cherry Hill officials think the latter, but the Delaware River Port Authority-run organization recently released a study outlining separate conceptual plans for seven of its South Jersey Speedline stations, including Woodcrest, offering a long-term vision that would dramatically change the landscape of the stations if developers opt to buy in.

PATCO’s Transit-Oriented Development Master Plan Study was put together after the organization was contacted by numerous developers and municipalities in recent years looking to do something with the various land parcels that make up the path of stations stretching from Philadelphia to Lindenwold, said PATCO President and CEO John Matheussen.

“I thought, ‘If there’s one thing we could improve upon, it’s doing a better job than we did 40 years ago with our parking lot areas.’ They take up a significant amount of land with blacktop,” he told The Sun.

While the lots brim with cars during the day as commuters take the Speedline to and from Center City, the parking areas are virtually empty on evenings and weekends, Matheussen said.

Prompted by the idea that land is much more of a commodity today than it was 40 years ago when PATCO built its rail system, the organization commissioned the TOD study to planning firm Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC, in order to evaluate the mixed-use development opportunities at each of its South Jersey stations with park-and-ride facilities.

“We wanted something that worked best for everyone – riders, developers, PATCO and the communities surrounding each station,” Matheussen said, noting his company was looking for ideas that would maximize economic return, advance economic development in host communities, improve inter-modal passenger connections and increase ridership.

Woodcrest’s conceptual site plan calls for two large, multi-tiered parking garages on opposite sides of the Speedline station, adjacent to seven office buildings with direct highway access, according to a copy of the master plan study obtained by The Sun.

Despite the study’s finding that such development would increase ridership – depending on the type of offices built – and bring new jobs and rateables to Cherry Hill, it also noted that replacing the current PATCO parking lot with a garage would be a hefty financial undertaking that most developers would balk at, triggering the need for significant public investments in the endeavor.

PATCO officials stated that the organization’s policy is to maintain the existing number of commuter parking spaces at each station regardless of future development on its sites, and that PATCO is not interested in paying for replacement parking structures – meaning the financial responsibility would fall on private or public investors.

Matheussen noted that the average price for a multi-level garage is $20,000 a parking space.

The Woodcrest report also found that the proposed development’s traffic impacts would require infrastructure upgrades and improvements on the surrounding roadways.

In the course of conducting the feasibility study, representatives from PATCO’s planning firm met with township officials and residents last year to gauge receptiveness to TOD at Woodcrest Station.

The final report notes that researchers encountered local opposition to developing the site with residences as well as little to no interest in developing it as an office park.

“The township is in favor of Transit Oriented Development projects that create a benefit for our community and balance the need for excellent public transportation options with the need for direct development around it,” said Mayor Bernie Platt. “But currently, we believe that proposals from PATCO, at the Woodcrest train station, require greater study in order to determine if this development will prove beneficial to the township, and to determine financial feasibility due to the time, effort and significant costs that would have to be included in any development.”

Additionally, he said, the township has concerns about traffic issues on Haddonfield-Berlin, Burnt Mill and Woodcrest roads.

“New development in this area presents the opportunity to overburden these main roadways in this section of Cherry Hill,” Platt explained, noting that while he’s an advocate of creating sensible and beneficial TOD, at this point in time, “the encumbrances (at the Woodcrest site) do not warrant the township’s immediate support for a TOD project.”

As owner of the station and land surrounding it, PATCO is within its legal rights to lease land to developers for construction that reflects the study’s proposals, officials said, but Matheussen told The Sun he was aware of the township’s objections to his organization’s conceptual design for Woodcrest and not interested in offering developers the opportunity to build in an area that didn’t want them to.