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The Mt. Ephraim Joint Land Use Board will hold a meeting on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. regarding the Sacred Heart Redevelopment Project.
The meeting will be in-person and will be held at the Mt. Ephraim Municipal Building, 121 S. Black Horse Pike.
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The Borough Engineer will present the results of the Preliminary Investigation for Block 34, Lots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.01, 9.02, 10, 11, 12, and 19 as an area in need of Redevelopment.
This is also known as the Sacred Heart Church redevelopment properties.
A Lidl store has been proposed there.
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From the Introduction in the Preliminary Investigation: “The purpose of the investigation is to determine if certain specific properties in the Borough of Mt. Ephraim satisfy the statutory criteria for property redevelopment. Eight of those properties are the lands occupied by The Church of the Sacred Heart (now closed) and include two church structures, a school, a rectory, and a garage structure.”
All of these properties are vacant and secured, the report reads. “An Italian restaurant occupies one of the parcels and remains open for business today. Four of the subject properties are occupied by existing single family homes.”
The Borough “has an early colonial history that was based on farming and it became a transportation hub for rail and stage lines. One of the properties in the study (Block 34, Lot 9.01) was the location of Ephraim Albertson’s Public House of 1800. The immediate surrounding community developed more rapidly, both commercially and residentially in the early 1900’s and throughout the 1930’s, before and after World War I, as a suburb of the nearby City of Gloucester.”
“Although much of the housing stock in the Borough is near or more than 100 years old, residents and business owners throughout the Borough continue to maintain their properties in good condition and the community remains a vibrant suburban community. The vacant church properties are a glaring departure from this observed standard, remaining vacant the last several years in an otherwise busy commercial corridor.”
To continue reading the Preliminary Investigation and to view the reports prepared by the Borough Engineer, click the image below:
