Kevin Riordan: An isolated enclave now is feeling as if it's in the crosshairs

West Collingswood Extension has long felt neglected, as well as protected, because of its island-like isolation from most of Haddon Township.

A working-class enclave bordered by Oaklyn, Collingswood, and Camden, the Extension is so tucked away that outsiders often don't know where, or even what, it is.

Lately, however, the neighborhood finds itself on the map, unhappily - as a potential location for an affordable apartment complex that could enable two market-rate housing projects to move forward in the township's Westmont section.

"They want to take all the affordable housing and put it here on us. We're the stepchild of Haddon Township," says Regina "Jean" Bridges, a 23-year Walnut Avenue resident. "They need to leave us the hell alone."

The township planning board voted unanimously Thursday to study whether the Black Horse Autoplex site on the Extension's southern boundary meets state redevelopment zone requirements. Municipalities can exert more control over projects within such zones.

The seven-acre Autoplex on Route 168 continues to do business but is for sale; owner Lee Winderman prefers not to comment "until there's an offer on the table," adding, "I want what's best for everybody."

Mayor Randy Teague insists the township is simply exploring a suggestion made by the Walters Group, the Marlton developer of an 84-unit market-rate apartment complex on the former Russell Stone company site in Westmont.

Walters officials were unavailable for comment last week, but their company is interested in the Black Horse Pike property.

"They approached us and said they thought the site would be good for housing - affordable housing, specifically," Teague says, adding: "This is all preliminary. There are no done deals."

"It's an idea."

The Extension is among Haddon Township's archipelago of distinct, and in some cases noncontiguous, neighborhoods. It's a solid, unpretentious area bordered by a Conrail line, Grant Avenue, Newton Lake, and Route 168.

Prewar frame houses line a quiet grid of streets; a blue-collar pride is evident, reminding me of where I grew up in Massachusetts. Some families have lived in the Extension for generations.

"It's a great little nook . . . a little jewel," says Francine Tryka president of the West Collingswood Extension Civic Association. "We have our own parades, our own Santa Claus party. It's a self-sufficient neighborhood."

The group called a meeting with Teague on Jan. 30 that drew about 150 people. "There was a lot of emotion," Tryka notes.

And on Thursday, she and about 30 other residents also attended a meeting of the township planning board, which unanimously approved the township commission's request to undertake a redevelopment zone evaluation.

Planning board officials took pains to emphasize that the study is a first step in a laborious process requiring public involvement at virtually every step. But the audience, while polite, was audibly skeptical.

They're not the only ones.

Kevin Walsh, an attorney with the Fair Share Housing Center, said that by seeking to put affordable housing "on the outskirts and near Camden, of all places, the township appears to intend to [marginalize] it."

Fair Share has sued the township and the developer of the second downtown project, Towne Center of Haddon. It includes 201 housing units - none of them affordable as defined through the state's Mount Laurel doctrine.

Although the township says its affordable-housing obligations already have been met through senior apartments, Teague says the Walters Group "sees the [Autoplex site] as a solution to this quagmire we're in with affordable housing. . . . It could make these lawsuits go away and enable the other projects to move forward."

Teague also insists that affordable "does not mean Section 8" housing, a reference to a much-derided federal rent-subsidy program.

"I think there's a general bias against affordable housing," the mayor adds. "It's almost like racial, or socioeconomic, profiling."

Extension resident George Pipito Jr. points out that a Camden trailer park already sits across the Black Horse Pike from the foot of Walnut Street. Affordable housing, he says, "is all around us, and we've held our own."

And longtime resident Laura Schneider says the Extension is not against "helping people along the way."

But she worries that existing houses aren't selling the way they used to.

"We're struggling already," Schneider says.

To view video of the West Collingswood Extension neighborhood go to

www.philly.com/extensionEndText

at 856-779-3845 or kriordan@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @inqkriordan. Read the Metro columnists' blog, "Blinq," at www.phillynews.com/blinq.