For more than 100 years, congregants of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church have gathered to worship on church property at White Horse Pike and Green Street in the borough of Haddon Heights, Camden County.
As the congregation has shrunk over the years, Borough government seized on a redevelopment plan that would preserve the church and promote needed residential development.
“Portions of the St. Mary’s campus were significantly under used and…the church has been struggling for years to maintain the site and buildings with a diminishing congregation,” a Borough redevelopment consultant wrote in a 2023 redevelopment plan.
“A proactive approach to redevelopment planning would assist in preventing the decline of the church buildings and grounds and would provide an avenue to enable the activation of unused or under-used parts of the property to meet a need in the community,” the plan noted.
The long-planned revitalization of the property was formally approved by Borough government in July and will see the church property divided. A 12,097-square-foot section of the property will be for the rehabbed church, and 47,903 square feet will be used for a new four-story apartment building restricted to senior citizen tenants.
Fifteen percent of the 37 units, or six in total, will be set aside as affordable housing. The units include 29 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom apartments.
The developer is 18 White Horse Pike Redevelopment LLC, a unit of the Haddon Heights Senior Citizens Housing Corp., which purchased the property in 2024 for $600,000, according to Camden County property records.
Haddon Heights Borough Planning and Zoning Board members in July adopted a resolution that memorialized its April decision approving the developer’s preliminary and final site plan and minor subdivision proposal. The property is in the Borough’s professional office and residential district.
When the board held a public hearing on the plan, two residents expressed support for the project and a third asked about the noise level and the safety of residents crossing the street.
In the application, the developer said the project advances both the redevelopment plan and the Borough Master Plan.
The redevelopment plan, the developer said in its summary, “is intended to enable preservation of a portion of the primary church building and the retention of the St. Mary’s congregation by allowing a coordinated redevelopment of the underused southern portion of the Property with inclusionary residential apartments for senior citizens.”
