EDITORIAL
We understand the hands of planners are sometimes tied because of state land-use law in New Jersey. If zoning allows for a 1.5-million-square-foot office complex on a piece of land, it pretty much has to go there whether Planning Board members think it’s a good idea or not.
We’ll stop short of saying developers have Planning Boards at gunpoint sometimes, but it’s pretty close.
Even so, we disagree with the Planning Board’s action this week allowing RCN Corp. to lease space in its proposed office complex to other companies.
RCN this week was seeking final approval for the first phase of the project. But before it could do that, it sought an amendment to its preliminary approval, which was granted in March.
Some of the amendments were welcome ones, such as the decision to move the main driveway around the campus 300 feet further away from the neighboring Ben Franklin Swim Club, the main entrance being moved further away from the Interstate 95 interchange, and more space being created for an entrance and exit on Franklin Corner Road (it would not have fit into the space allotted for it next to I-95) through the demolition of a house there.
What bothers us is RCN’s request – and the board’s subsequent approval – to allow the company to lease out space in the offices to other companies. Board members understandably found the guarantee of one tenant alluring back in March. Now the telecommunications company says it would like the flexibility to lease out space in the future.
However, since applicants – especially applicants with bundles of money and attorneys behind them – hold most of the cards in the land use game, it’s entirely reasonable to think the board may have felt a little intimidated and thus didn’t put its foot down on this issue.
We wonder if it’s just coincidence that between the initial preliminary approval in March and the amended one presented this week, RCN has released two quarterly reports showing a loss of $144.6 million. Not only that, but the losses are increasing – in the first quarter the company lost $68.8 million, and in the second quarter lost $75.8 million. Bringing in a few dollars in rent might help shrink those numbers.
The board’s requiring the office park be scaled back if RCN decides to permanently lease space doesn’t play into our thinking.
To us, it’s about principle. Once you receive an approval to build something, you shouldn’t be allowed to change a major condition of the approval simply because your accountant’s using red ink instead of black.