DEPTFORD – An “underutilized” shopping center here has lost a bid to lease 300 parking spaces to Amazon.
An appeals court recently upheld two decisions by Deptford’s zoning board and a state judge that prevented Amazon vehicles from using about a third of the parking lot at Deptford Commons.
The Deptford clash is at least the second dispute in a South Jersey town over parking for Amazon vehicles. A New York-based developer earlier this year withdrew an application, strongly opposed by residents, to park 218 trailer vehicles outside a closed shopping center in Willingboro, the Grand Market Place.
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In Deptford, Amazon had agreed to a two-year lease in November 2018 for parking spaces at a Clements Bridge Road complex with a vacancy rate of about 36 percent, according to the ruling.
The agreement would have allowed Amazon to park delivery vans overnight and to replace them with employees’ vehicles during the day.
But Deptford asserted that was a non-conforming use that violated the town’s unified development ordinance.
The municipality issued citations in January and March 2019 to the shopping center’s owner, Deptford Commons LLC, and its manager, Malachite Group Ltd. It then asked a Superior Court judge to block Amazon from using the lot without required permits and variances.
That was the beginning of a fight on two fronts between the shopping center operators and the township, said the Sept. 29 ruling.
While the court case was pending, Amazon filed a zoning permit application in June 2019. The zoning board denied it six days later.
The retail giant then sought two use variances, which the board refused in an 8-1 vote in February 2020.
Next, the judge hearing the separate court case ruled in the township’s favor and ordered Amazon to vacate the parking lot by March 30, 2020.
In their appeal, Deptford Commons and Malachite asked a three-judge panel to overturn the decisions by both the zoning board and the judge.
They argued in part that the zoning board had “failed to consider sufficiently the underutlized condition of the strip mall — even before the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The 66-acre shopping center, anchored by Marshall’s and TJ Maxx stores, has multiple empty storefronts.
But the appeals court found the zoning board was “mindful” of the shopping center’s condition.
It said the board “was justifiably concerned that the arrival, departure, and parking of Amazon trucks and vans in ‘waves’ throughout the day could have a detrimental impact upon the patrons and employees of the retail stores in the shopping center.’
The decision also said the board “fairly weighed” testimony and evidence, “including particularly the traffic data and the existence of alternative, industrially suited sites nearby where such parking is not prohibited.”
And it observed the firms are not barred from making a new application to the zoning board “based upon a showing of changed circumstances or a material modification of the earlier proposal.”
Jim Walsh covers public safety, economic development and other beats for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.
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