Business & Tech

Woodcrest Owners Sue, Seek to Build 844 Housing Units

First Montgomery Group went on the offensive against Cherry Hill in the latest addition to the legal fight over the club's future.

The new owners of Woodcrest Country Club have upped the ante in the fight over potential residential development at the site, filing suit against Cherry Hill Township for the right to build as many as 844 units on the golf course.

First Montgomery Group, which has already appealed a state decision excluding much of the golf course from sewer service, is suing the township in a joint action with Fair Share Housing Center in Superior Court, seeking to have the courts throw out the township's 2011 housing plan and allow development, including 169 affordable units, at Woodcrest.

Township officials, who have been steadfast in opposition to any development at the property, called the suit the latest in First Montgomery Group's “schoolyard bully tactics,” and reiterated their stance of blocking any housing at Woodcrest.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“From day one, the First Montgomery Group has spewed nothing but lies and deceit to the residents of Cherry Hill,” Mayor Chuck Cahn said in a joint statement with members of township council. “Today, the full extent of that deception has come to light.”

“We are outraged by First Montgomery’s disingenuous attempts to move into our community like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, promising at first to 'maintain the integrity' of this vast swath of open space because its owners 'value[d] Woodcrest Country Club’s historical ties to the community.'

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“We now know that these developers value nothing about the property but dollar signs.”

Though First Montgomery Group has consistently declined to comment about the legal action swirling around the club—“It's not our intention to fight with the town in the press,” Matthew Haydinger, one of the group's principals, said in a recent email—Fair Share Housing representatives said Woodcrest, which is one of six properties specifically named in an 20-year-old agreement as a possible site for affordable development, represents a clear opportunity for the township to meet its affordable housing obligations.

“It's a site that's been in the plans since 1993,” Fair Share Associate Director Kevin Walsh said. “We expect the township will keep the commitment it made.”

Walsh hit the township for not doing more to abide with the Mount Laurel decision, which governs affordable housing in the state—“It's far from meeting its obligations,” he said—and said Woodcrest is a key piece in creating equity for local residents in a township where the average home value is now $230,000.

With a family of three qualifying for affordable housing even when making as much as $57,000, Walsh said the issue of Cherry Hill's unmet obligations—exactly how much that entails is disputed, and still a matter of litigation—affects many households.

“These are working folks who are having trouble making ends meet,” he said. “This is a matter of basic economics. People are going to be excluded.”

But township officials said the fight is over keeping one of the last pieces of open space in Cherry Hill as just that, as well as protecting the historical and environmental significance of the property.

“Let us be clear: We do not and will not support development of any kind on the Woodcrest Country Club property,” Cahn said. “This has been our stance from the beginning, and it will not change. We will not be threatened into submission.”

While the course is zoned for institutional use—which would allow a narrow window of development, including for medical or educational uses—First Montgomery Group has already claimed the sewer exclusion makes the club nonviable in its appeal to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the first hint the group was pushing for housing at the course.

First Montgomery paid $10.1 million for the property earlier this year, beating out several other bidders, including Camden County and an investment group led by Camden County Democratic Party leader George E. Norcross III.

Though the developer initially re-launched the course by calling it “The Village at Woodcrest,” that moniker—and any inferences that could’ve been drawn from it—disappeared soon after the club reopened as a $125-per-round daily-fee course.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here