DEPTFORD TWP. — A dispute between hotel companies has resulted in another setback, perhaps a short-lived one, for a Delaware corporation that’s tried for more than two years to join the hospitality corridor along Route 41.
SSN Hotels LLC went before members of the planning board seeking final approval to construct two hotels accessed off Harmony Lane. Its prospects dimmed when new legal research by an attorney representing two existing hotels was released to board members.
A professional planner working for owners of two adjacent hotels — a Courtyard by Marriott and a Hampton Inn and Suites — testified that SSN Hotels needed at least two more variances in addition to the three for which it’s applied.
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Planner Philip Sartorio said the most recent site design has trash enclosures and a stormwater basin that are too close to the borders of the roughly 5.17-acre property to comply with local zoning rules. A loading and delivery area is also absent from the SSN Hotels plan.
Attorney Jeffrey Baron, also representing the competing hotels at the Dec. 4 hearing, told planning officials that the apparent oversights create another legal issue: Residents had no way to know about the zoning conflicts, which violates their right to know about board matters under New Jersey law.
A site map shows the locations, shapes, and other details of two hotels proposed to be built off Rt. 41 and harmony Lane in Deptford Twp. The Planning Board reviewed the proposal Wednesday but delayed a vote over claimed legal issues. Dec. 4, 2024.
“The law is pretty clear that, if there are variances and variances needed, and the applicant should or does know about them, then they need to be noticed (advertised),” Baron said. “And they weren’t. And they weren’t applied for, so why notice something that you didn’t even apply for?”
Board members agreed to adjourn the hearing until Jan. 8 at the grudging request of project attorney Damien Del Duca. He said he didn’t think they needed to advertise the hearing to alert residents on the new issues, but agreed to do it to avoid a lawsuit.
Planner Philip Sartorio, pictured at a planning board meeting of Deptford Township on Wednesday, shows attorney Damien Del Duca on a map where a hotel development plan may not comply with zoning rules.
“We know that if don’t adjourn the application and give notice of those two variances, that Mr. Baron is likely going to raise those on appeal to delay the construction of these hotels,” Del Duca said. “So that his clients’ hotels will have less competition for longer, rather than shorter.”
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Board solicitor James Burns said an adjournment and a new meeting notice was the smart approach.
“I don’t want to see the township spend any more tax money on litigation than we have to,” Burns said.
SSN Hotels went through a lengthy hearing in February. At the time they received unanimous approval from the planning board officials.
But the approval spawned two lawsuits, later merged, by neighboring property owners. Both Deptford Township and SSN Hotels were defendants.
In October, however, a state judge dismissed those suits because the township was unable to produce a transcript of the February board hearing for the court to study. The board’s recording system was faulty for that hearing. The judge ordered a new board hearing to settle the disputes.
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Deptford has not responded to questions from the Courier-Post about the nature of the recording system problem, nor whether it had been fixed or any other hearings were affected.
But at Wednesday’s hearing, Del Duca brought his own court recorder to create a transcript for his use.
Deptford designates only one area for hotel construction. That area is along Route 41 (Hurffville Road) in the vicinity of its large shopping centers and the ramps to and from Route 42.
Hotel chains like Deptford because of its proximity to population centers such as Philadelphia and Atlantic City, as well as to numerous colleges and businesses. It also has ready access to major highways.
Deptford has encouraged hotel development for almost 20 years and has four along Route 41. Revenue to the township comes not just from property taxes on them, but also a separate hotel tax.
A SSN Hotels executive testified that each proposed hotel is a $10-million investment. He said the company is insistent on having two hotels here because doing one would not be financially sound.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: SSN Hotels project in Deptford Township, NJ delayed at Route 41