Neighbors in Gloucester Township criticize plan to turn New Jersey golf course into housing development
A housing project in South Jersey is facing strong opposition from a growing group of neighbors.
Friends of Freeway is a Facebook group for neighbors who have united against turning the former Freeway Golf Course on Sicklerville Road into a large housing development.
"The proposed development has significant impacts on our community," Nancy Gentile, who is part of Friends of Freeway, said.
Gentile said she's helped distribute more than 3,000 flyers to alert people to how the plan would affect the community.
"It will tip us right over the edge. We are so close to a tipping point," Gentile said.
Freeway is reportedly the first Black-owned golf course in the country and has been empty for years.
A developer now wants to turn the green space into "Freeway Pointe," a mixed-use residential community. According to documents on Gloucester Township's Zoning Board agenda, 743 housing units would be built on 154 acres, which includes single-family homes, townhouses and affordable apartment units.
"To try to cram, you know, 700 houses on a piece of property that should be 154 units is overkill, to put it mildly," Denise Coyne said.
Coyne has lived in the township since 1977. She said the golf course is zoned as R-1, which means one housing unit is permitted per acre, but the developer wants to change the zoning variance.
With several new communities popping up in the township, Coyne fears Freeway Pointe will overcrowd schools and cause gridlock traffic.
"The traffic in this part of town on Sicklerville Road is already outrageous. Anybody that lives here is aware of that," Coyne said.
The last two zoning board meetings have been postponed, and it's not clear when the developer's application could be voted on.
In the meantime, members of the Friends of Freeway group say they plan to keep fighting.
"People need to show up in force, and they need to speak out, and they need to let the planners and the administration and the zoning board know we don't want this," Coyne said.
CBS Philadelphia reached out to both the developer and the township for more details about the proposal and is waiting to hear back.
