Once a remote Pinelands town, Evesham now has main roads clogged with traffic and rimmed by strip malls and shopping centers. Its population has more than doubled in the last three decades to 46,000, making it Burlington County's most populous town.
The community's developable land, like that of many South Jersey suburbs, is built out.
But local leaders see opportunity in a recently launched project to erect an overpass in the place of the Marlton Circle at the heart of town, a move expected to smooth out traffic flow and reduce accidents at the intersection of Routes 70 and 73.
They have hired a firm to gather and analyze input from residents under a process called "visioning" to help determine what Evesham could become and the kinds of planning and development the township should encourage. The focus will be revitalizing the town's Main Street, adapting development patterns to the broader scale that will accompany the new overpass, and improving parks and neighborhoods.
The development that now surrounds the traffic circle - heavily traveled by commuters and vacationers en route to the Shore - is of the one-story, highway-commercial variety that has come to embody suburban sprawl.
And the township's nearby Main Street is tree-lined and pleasant, with brick walkways, but has little in the way of a downtown feel despite drawing thousands of people for major events such as the Fourth of July parade. It is home to some professional offices, a boutique, and other small businesses, and a 7-Eleven at the corner of Maple Avenue.
The buildings are set back from the sidewalk, and visitors cannot park on the street. The Marlton Tavern is the only place there to get dinner.
The $31 million overpass project leaves the community with the question, and challenge, of "what do you want it to look and feel like from the neighborhood and the areas that surround it, and that sort of sets the canvas for the visioning exercise that we've been retained for," said Jim Constantine, a principal of the firm Looney Ricks Kiss, which Evesham hired using state grant money.
Constantine and his team plan to engage residents in a series of exercises during community workshops to get them thinking about Evesham's future. The idea is to start with no preconceived notions, and even prepare for the possibility of residents wanting very little change at all.
The events will start by having attendees identify on a blown-up aerial photograph the places in the study area that they like most and least. Then residents will rate images of Evesham and other communities that address walkability, streetscaping, building heights, and other design issues.
There are follow-up discussions and stations for people to review case studies of what other communities have done.
LRK will tabulate and analyze the results, then make recommendations to the township addressing what will happen around the circle, on Main Street, and in other areas. One route the town can then take is incorporating the ideas into its master plan, opening the door to zoning changes and new design guidelines.
The workshops will be held at the Gibson House Community Center on July 11, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and July 21, from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m.
"If you look at a vibrant Main Street, whether it's Moorestown or it's Collingswood or it's Haddonfield, there are some things you can pick up on right away," said Sandy Student, chairman of the Marlton Economic Development Advisory Commission. "They have on-street parking. There's a mix of retail and residential; in some instances retail's on the first floor and residential is on the second floor."
Evesham's zoning for its downtown has made it difficult for a mixed-use environment to develop, said Dan Morton, owner of a financial firm on Main Street.
Evesham's challenges are similar to those facing suburbs across New Jersey and the country, as communities rethink the sprawling, automobile-dependent development patterns that have evolved into the norm over the last 50 or so years.
American communities "have to live with the development pattern that they have created perhaps for the next 50 to 100 years, but what they can do is they can make small gestures and take a very small area of the town, and rethink that as a more sustainable place," said Tony Nelessen, associate professor of planning and design at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
Nelessen, also the founder and president of planning firm A. Nelessen Associates, patented the community-visioning process 20 years ago. Americans, he said, are frustrated with the development patterns in which they are trapped.
"What we are finding across the board is that people now are reverting very, very heavily back to what I will call more of the human scale in what they want . . . they want less emphasis upon the car, and more emphasis upon people," he said. "More emphasis upon green and landscaping, and less emphasis upon paving. They want more of an emphasis upon mixed-use development," as opposed to zoning that separates residential from commercial and office uses.
Collingswood, whose downtown is regarded as a model by local officials, used the visioning technique. So did Chesterfield, which implemented a farmland-preservation program to funnel growth to a planned town center with a school, shops, parks, and homes.
Residents of Eastampton attended visioning workshops that led to recommendations for a mixed-use town center and more community- and pedestrian-friendly spaces.
And Moorestown several years ago engaged in visioning exercises, though with less success, to gather community input on how to improve Camden Avenue, the mall, and Main Street.
"I think every town should probably periodically look to see what it is they want to be and how close they are to being that," said Jonathan Eron, a former Moorestown councilman involved in the process. "Unless you're starting a planned community, all you can really do is change your zoning and try to encourage people to do those sort of uses that you want to encourage."
In Evesham, revitalization efforts targeting Main Street and Maple Avenue are expected for now to hinge on the former municipal building, which has been designated part of a redevelopment zone. It is expected to become one- or two-bedroom housing, according to Mayor Randy Brown.
Brown, a lifelong resident, said he would propose rezoning Main Street to permit more commercial and office uses, which could be patronized by the future residents of the former municipal site.
Still uncertain is whether local leaders will find a way to fund their proposal of placing a connector between Old Marlton Pike and Main Street, which could boost local businesses and unify two areas divided by Route 73.
"I suspect the residents will definitely want greater connectivity, greater options for getting around, not just being car-dependent," said Township Manager Tom Czerniecki. "I suspect that there's going to be a call to make Main Street a more lively place, like a common living room."
Change, if that is what residents decide they want, will come over the long term.
The multi-phase Marlton Circle elimination project, for which ground was broken in April, will take more than two years. Meanwhile, Evesham is mostly out of buildable space, and Constantine expects that it could take five to 10 years before much is altered, as buildings switch hands and new developers enter the scene.
Contact staff writer Maya Rao at 856-779-3220 or mrao@phillynews.com.
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