Hurdles Cleared for Outlet Stores, But Not Everyone Cheers

The Gloucester Township planning board on Tuesday approved final plans for what Mayor Dave Mayer calls the “largest economic development project in the history of Gloucester Township.”

But not everyone was cheering.

Mark and Melissa Malfara said Gloucester Premium Outlets, a mega-sized 450,000-square-foot retail center on 55 acres of land just off of Route 42 at College Drive, is going to funnel traffic practically to their front door. Melissa broke down in tears moments before the planning board unanimously approved signage details for the project, which was granted site plan approval on May 28. 

The details about the placement and size of signs and several other improvements mandated by the board were the final steps in gaining local approval for the project. 

Mayer said it will bring 1,000 jobs and thousands of shoppers to Gloucester Township.

But the Malfaras said they just found out about the mega project down the street and wondered aloud why they didn’t get a notice in the mail or a call from the township.

“It should have been common courtesy to knock on our door and say, ‘Heads up, this is what’s going to be happening,’" she said after the meeting. “Not everybody reads the paper. Granted, it’s on us to find out what’s going on but people have things going on in their lives.”

Gloucester Premium Outlets is expected to bring name-brand, high-end merchandise to this oasis of land in southern Camden County. It’s located on a new interchange on the busy Route 42 highway and is expected to draw big crowds during and after its scheduled opening in the fall of 2014.

But Mark Malfara, 46, a state Department of Transportation employee, said construction went on round the clock when the exchange was being carved out of farm land several years ago and he feared a repeat with the approval of this project.

Planning board members said they sympathized with the Malfaras, but the scope of Tuesday’s meeting was just about signage and not the whole site plan, which was approved in May.

They said the Malfaras might be able to address some of their concerns when the developers go before the county planning board. A date for that hearing was not immediately announced.

Cooper Boulevard and Zimmerman Drive, the two main entrances to the new development, are both county roads. The Malfaras said Zimmerman Drive seemed to pop up out of nowhere during the interchange construction and leads traffic literally to their door on Woodland Avenue.

The problem is compounded because a left turn onto the Black Horse Pike, where Zimmerman dead-ends, is prohibited. Most drivers solve the dilemma by making a U-turn in the Malfaras' front yard.

Lou DeStefano, the owner of DeStefano’s Auto Parts on the Black Horse Pike near the Malfaras' home, also asked the planning board about Zimmerman Drive. He said he thinks it’s an accident waiting to happen.

“It’s a piece of asphalt in open field going nowhere,” DeStafano said.