Residents Win the Battle of the Blue Wedge

In August, residents of Cherry Hill and Autoville were preparing to do battle against a rather irregular foe: , with which Best Buy planned to adorn the outside of their new store in the College Park Marketplace.

Residents were concerned that not only would the wedge be an eyesore to those living in the neighboring communities, but that it would violate the signage limitations cited in the recently implemented US 1 Corridor Sector Plan.

However, the war never came. Best Buy has now been open for one month, and there is no blue wedge in sight.

City Councilman Marcus Afzali (Dist. 4), who in August helped orchestrate a meeting between residents and Michael Companies, the developer of College Park Marketplace, said that he hopes Best Buy simply decided that affixing the sign wasn't worth annoying residents.

"I assume they got to the point where they knew it was going to be a really big fight," Afzali said.

Afzali added that he contacted Best Buy's developer to thank him for reconsidering their position on the sign, but never received a call back. That's fine with him, though.

"Either way, I'm happy it kind of faded away," he said.

Brian Goldstein, Michael Companies' vice president of development, who attended the meeting on behalf of Best Buy, said even he hadn't heard from the company regarding the sign.

"We're kind of on standby," he said. "I don't know if they're just waiting, or if they've moved on.

Goldstein said that at this point, the store's general manager has  likely assumed control of operations. But Best Buy General Manager Kevin McGrath said he hadn't heard anything about it, either.  Wedge or no wedge, he said, business was going well.

"A lot of people still don't know we're open," he said. "But traffic is picking up every day."

Overall, the consensus seems to be that Best Buy is operating just fine sans wedge.

"If the town is happy, and the residents are happy, I'm happy," Goldstein said.