In Gloucester Twp., present intrudes on future

As David Mayer sees it, a mayor's office is a great place to catch a glimpse of the future.

"Mayors can see things before others do, because of the developers who come in and express interest," says Mayer, 49, a Democrat and former New Jersey assemblyman who since 2010 has served as mayor of Gloucester Township.

"Not only are we going to grow commercially," he declares, "we're going to grow residentially."

Mayer and I are having coffee at the Gloucester Premium Outlets, a sleek new complex of 90 style-conscious discount stores - and villagelike public spaces - just off busy Route 42.

The retail center's opening in August was the culmination of a decades-long quest by the 24-square-mile Camden County suburb.

Gloucester Township had sought to have a regional shopping center big enough to put a community - still known by the names of its once-rural sections, like Blackwood - on the map.

So it seems ironic that the sort of commercial development that political and civic leaders yearned for in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, when the township's population was soaring, came to fruition after four years of apparent population decline.

The number of people living in Gloucester Township grew more than threefold from 17,591 to 64,315, between 1960 and 2000, according to the U.S. Census. Nearly 20,000 additional residents were counted between 1980 and 2000 alone.

But between 2000 and 2010, the count nudged upward by only 319 people. And the Census Bureau estimates that the population fell by just under 1 percent - from 64,634 to 64,029, between 2010 and 2014. This is the first drop since 1950.

A 2013 Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission report foresees Gloucester Township's population rebounding to nearly 70,000 by 2040.

"Solid growth," says Mary Bell, the commission's manager of demographic and economic analysis.

She notes that a total of 138 building permits for multifamily dwelling units (individual apartments or condos) were issued in 2013 and 2014 in the township, along with building permits for 14 duplexes.

But Ray Polidoro, who heads the Republican organization in the Democratic-controlled township, says population loss is a consequence of relentlessly rising municipal property taxes.

"They're making it impossible for middle-class people to stay here," says Polidoro, 54, an appliance technician who lives in the Erial section.

"I live right next door to a home that has been vacant for 10 years," he says. "There are people in my neighborhood paying $5,000 a year in property taxes for a rancher on less than a quarter of an acre."

(Here's another example: I know a couple whose property-tax bill has risen 100 percent since they built a house in the township 20 years ago. They don't live in a rancher, but they do pay more than $10,000 a year, which would be absurd were it not so appalling.)

On the plus side, Gloucester Township is a civic-minded and rather pretty place, hilly in spots (at least by South Jersey standards) and blessed with creeks, lakes, attractive wooded areas, and parks.

And while it doesn't have access to high-speed mass transit, it does have the 42 freeway - not to mention Camden County College's vibrant main campus.

Gloucester Township "is not going to fall apart. It's not as if people are evacuating. But the go-go years are gone," says James W. Hughes, dean of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

That's because living in cities and "inner ring" suburbs (think: Collingswood) is all the rage among younger folks, as well as some baby boomers, reducing demand for those car-centric suburbs farther from the metropolitan core.

(The Census Bureau estimates the population of Gloucester Township's long-booming neighbor Washington Township also fell between 2010 and 2014 - from 48,559 to 47,841.)

This is a reversal, Hughes notes, of the postwar pattern that gave rise to modern Gloucester Township.

Ed Bonnette moved there from Southwest Philadelphia with his family - "We followed our neighbors over here," he recalls - in 1961.

"Houses were going up all over the place," says Bonnette, 64, a retired salesman long involved in the township's political and civic affairs.

Says lifelong Blackwood resident and retired businessman George Marks, 67, who served for 20 years on the municipal zoning board: "I remember watching this town grow. It was always bustling."

Not so much anymore, at least where Marks and I are speaking - at the Baskets & Blooms flower shop his wife and daughter run on a struggling stretch of the Black Horse Pike in Blackwood.

Despite some thriving businesses nearby, this stretch of the pike seems downright depopulated.

"I would like to see it brought back to what it was before the blight," Marks says.

The mayor - earnest, enthusiastic, and clearly in love with his town, and the job - says he's working on it.

Mayer cites five proposed artificial-turf fields, two ongoing "litter patrols," and visions for an arts district in Blackwood, where renovation of a nearby shopping plaza is underway.

"You have to grow your [tax] ratable base," he adds. "Fortunately, there's a lot of interest. Both sides of 42 have tremendous potential."

Back in Blackwood, Jeff and Rosemary Moore opened the Book Asylum in a long-vacant retail space a few doors north of Baskets & Blooms five years ago.

The cozy bookstore and coffee shop offers java, baked goodies, and, Rosemary says, "a place for us crazy people" who still enjoy browsing and reading actual, rather than virtual, books (count me in).

The longtime Blackwood resident, 49, is optimistic.

"We've heard they're trying to build this area up and become like a Haddonfield or a Collingswood," she says.

"Get rid of the eyesores and bring in more people so there will be more foot traffic," Rosemary adds.

"The idea is to grow."

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