Corporation may want more than one tennant at Princeton Pike facility
By: Lea Kahn
Township planners have scheduled back-to-back public hearings next week to discuss the RCN Corp.’s request for approval of an amended preliminary overall site plan and final site plan approval for Phase I.
The Planning Board will meet Monday at 8 p.m. to consider the RCN application. A second meeting tentatively has been scheduled for Tuesday, also at 8 p.m. The meetings will be held in the Lower Level Conference Room at the municipal building.
The board granted preliminary site plan approval for RCN’s planned 1.5 million-square-foot corporate headquarters in March. When fully developed, it will be the largest office park in the township. The Bristol-Myers Squibb headquarters on Route 206 is 1.3 million square feet.
RCN’s planned headquarters will be located on 134 acres on Princeton Pike at Lewisville Road. It includes the 55-acre former Union Camp property and an adjacent 79-acre tract formerly owned by Princeton Pike Park. The 132,000-square-foot Union Camp building will be demolished.
The amended preliminary site plan seeks to change the conditions of approval so a second user may be permitted, under certain limited circumstances. The original resolution granting permission for the office park was limited the number of users to just one – the RCN Corp.
The revised application includes one lot on Franklin Corner Road, occupied by a single-family house. The house will be razed so RCN can install a driveway from Franklin Corner Road.
The general layout of the office park has been altered, according to documents on file at the Community Development Department. The plan proposes several outdoor recreation amenities, including a softball field, basketball courts and a path system. The office park has been reoriented away from the Ben Franklin Swim Club.
RCN wants to amend the preliminary site plan to allow a 15-square-foot freestanding sign on Franklin Corner Road. Ten square feet is the maximum size for freestanding signs next to residential uses.
Several design waivers also are being sought for the final site plan for Phase I. They range from requests to allow narrower parking stalls in the parking garages, to removing nine specimen trees.
The first phase of the office park proposes construction of 610,991 square feet of office space in four buildings. It also includes 2,462 parking spaces in five two- or three-story parking garages, plus 67 visitor parking spaces and 49 handicapped parking spaces.
About 2,500 employees are expected to work in the new buildings in Phase I. The company now employs about 600 people in 225,000 square feet of rented office space at the Carnegie Center office park. It expects to hire 1,500 to 2,000 people in the next couple of years.
RCN provides local and long distance telephone, cable television and high-speed Internet services. It has over 1 million connections and expects to grow to serve several million over the next few years.
Related stories:
RCN coming to Lawrence
RCN will create problems, opportunities (editorial)