Brandywine Senior Living Expansion Hearing

A controversial plan to double the size of an assisted-care home for seniors will be considered tonight by the borough Historic Preservation Commission.

Brandywine Senior Living at Haddonfield, formerly known as the , wants to expand the size of its two-story facility at 132 Warwick Rd. from 16,900 square feet to 33,800 square feet, from 52 units to 64. Officials there said the expansion is needed to upgrade the facility, which will be razed and rebuilt, except for a historic home that acts as the front facade.

The hearing tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the will be the first step in the process to win government approval. The HPC will review the project and either grant or deny a certificate of historical appropriateness.

The application will then go to the planning board to make a final ruling on the project.

Some neighbors and community groups, such as Preservation Haddonfield, a citizen's advocacy group, have already come out against the project.

"We believe that corporations of this magnitude have the resources and the responsibility to renovate this facility on a significantly smaller scale commensurate with the characteristics of our neighborhood," an email from the group said today.

Brandywine President and CEO Brenda Bacon said her company is trying to address neighbor concerns while trying to improve the quality of life in Haddonfield's only assisted-care, senior living facility.

"We're trying to make each design better and more responsive to the neighbors," she said. "We never expect the neighbors to jump up and down and say this was a wonderful thing, but the home has existed here since 1953. We're now happy to be a taxpaying part of the community."