A developer wants Voorhees Township's permission to knock down a decades-old gas station and a nearby home so it can build an 11,182-square-foot car wash at the busy intersection of White Horse and Evesham roads, right on the Cherry Hill border. TNG Voorhees LLC needs a use variance from the township's Zoning Board of Adjustment because the project spans two lots, one of which is zoned rural residential, where a car wash is not a permitted use.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hear the application at its Nov. 12 meeting, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The site sits at a crossroads surrounded by established commercial anchors: the Shoppes at Holly Ravine and Holly Ravine Farm occupy the northwest corner, a ShopRite supermarket sits on the northeast corner, and Saddlehill Winery is on the southeast corner, the paper reported. The intersection also draws traffic fed in from Springdale Road on the Cherry Hill side.
The project would combine two parcels totaling about 1.6 acres. One is the former Shell station at 1607 Evesham Rd., owned by TNG Voorhees LLC of San Diego, which bought the property along with three other buyers from Voorhees Shell for $1,658,112 in 2017, according to Camden County property records cited by the Inquirer. The other parcel, a residential property at 1502 White Horse Rd. owned by Ferriol C. Apistar and Crisanta B. Apistar, would be demolished as part of the project.
Car Wash Building Would Sit Entirely on Residential Lot
Under the plan, the proposed car wash building would be located entirely on the residential lot, while the former gas station parcel would be converted into parking, the Inquirer reported. The development includes entrance and exit driveways on both Evesham Road and White Horse Road. TNG Voorhees has said the site will have 16 on-site queuing spaces, plus additional stacking between payment kiosks and the wash tunnel, which the company designed to prevent vehicles from backing up onto public roads.
In written statements to the township, TNG Voorhees argued the gas station and service shop had occupied the site for decades and that the property is ripe for redevelopment. The company said the project would promote the general welfare by putting an underutilized property to better use, per the Inquirer's reporting.
Variance Carries a Higher Legal Bar
Because a use variance is being sought, the application faces what a review letter from Artheon described as an enhanced burden of proof concerning the project's impact on the surrounding community, the Inquirer reported. Artheon's letter stated that TNG must show the car wash would not substantially harm the character of the neighborhood or the quality of life for nearby residents and businesses.
The Voorhees case lands amid a broader wave of car-wash proposals across the two townships. A previous Route 73 car wash proposal in Voorhees, pursued by a different applicant years earlier, called for clearing 1.7 acres of a nearly two-acre lot and removing an estimated 935 trees ranging from five inches to three feet in diameter, according to 70and73.com. That plan included three payment lanes with kiosks, room for 23 queued cars, a 125-foot wash tunnel and 17 vacuum spaces, and its traffic study concluded the wash would not significantly increase traffic in the area. It also required a use variance since car washes were not permitted in that zone.
Other Projects Have Multiplied Nearby
That Route 73 site, at southbound Route 73 and Dutchtown Road, was proposed by Charlotte-based Boing US Holdco Inc. as a Take 5 Car Wash. Rose Commercial had announced that the nearly two-acre parcel at 121 Route 73 traded for $1.15 million in a sale reported by re-nj.com, with the buyer slated to build a stay-in-your-car wash requiring local approvals.
Cherry Hill has seen its own cluster of car-wash activity. The township's Planning Board was set to hear applications for two car washes just more than three-quarters of a mile apart, one involving conversion of the existing Pristine Hand Carwash Lube & Detail Center on Haddonfield Road and another, a Tidal Wave Auto Spa spanning 3,475 square feet with 15 free vacuum spaces, planned for Route 70 and South Cornell Avenue after several small commercial buildings are torn down, per the same 70and73.com report. The Haddonfield Road proposal was also tied to Boing US Holdco Inc. Separately, a Cherry Hill zoning board notice described an approved extension of approvals for redeveloping an existing car wash and adding a 2,474-square-foot drive-through coffee shop, a project for which no variances were requested, according to a notice posted by the Township of Cherry Hill.
The pattern reflects a broader trend local outlets have tracked for years: several new car washes have opened in the area, adding to the ones already doing business along major roads, 70and73.com has reported. Whether the Voorhees Zoning Board of Adjustment grants TNG Voorhees the variance it needs remains to be seen when the board takes up the application next month.
