Sarnoff wants major expansion; neighbors don’t

The company hopes to expand its West Windsor campus to compare in scope to Carnegie Center.

By: David M. Campbell
   WEST WINDSOR — Sarnoff Corp. has unveiled a concept plan for a greatly expanded office and research campus in Penns Neck, comparable in scope to Carnegie Center off Route 1, which could host as many as 10,000 new employees.
   Area neighbors have formed a coalition to either stop the plan or convince Sarnoff to buy their homes so they can move.
   Sarnoff President James Carnes met Thursday night with about 25 Penns Neck residents to introduce a preliminary plan for a sizable "technology campus" on the company’s 335-acre property off Fisher Place. The plan is to renovate and expand the existing facility, and construct 12 additional buildings totaling about 2.75 million square feet, said Tom Lento, director of corporate communications at Sarnoff.
   The preliminary plan was submitted to West Windsor Township in December, and Planning Board hearings are expected in early February, Mr. Lento said.
   The first phase of construction would be the renovation and expansion of the existing research and office facility by renovating 250,000 square feet of the existing 600,000-square-foot building, tearing down the remainder and constructing 500,000 square feet of new space, he said.
   This first phase construction is expected to expand Sarnoff’s 750-member staff to about 1,200 employees, Mr. Lento said.
   Completion of the rest of the concept plan includes additional offices and research labs as well as a proposed hotel and conference center, he said.
   Mr. Canto said the additional research facilities at the Penns Neck complex would be rented to spin-off technology firms sponsored by Sarnoff. In the past seven years, Sarnoff has sponsored 19 such high-tech ventures, he said.
   According to the current plan, Mr. Lento continued, the main point of access to the new research campus would be the proposed Millstone Bypass, the current alignment of which would cut through the Sarnoff lands.
   The state Department of Transportation is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement on the 2.3-mile bypass, a thorough study of environmental impacts and alternative alignments, following prolonged public outcry against the proposed alignment.
   Mr. Lento said Sarnoff has always publicly supported the current alignment, which would connect Route 571, near the Princeton Junction train station, to Washington Road, near Carnegie Lake, paralleling the Millstone River and Delaware & Raritan Canal.
   "We feel this plan works perfectly with the Millstone Bypass," he said. "If it doesn’t happen, then we’ll have to look at other options."
   Mr. Lento said construction will not be put on hold while the DOT prepares the environmental study, which a DOT spokesman has said could take up to two years to complete.
   In the meantime, some Penns Neck residents intend to stop the plan or have their homes bought out.
   Kelly Byram of Fisher Place said Monday that she and about a dozen neighbors have formed a coalition to protect their neighborhood from becoming another Carnegie Center, a comparison she said Sarnoff representatives made repeatedly at the meeting last Thursday.
   "We’re really disturbed about it because it changes the nature of the Penns Neck neighborhood," Ms. Byram said. "It makes a congested area even more congested."
   Ms. Bryam raised concern about construction at the site, which Mr. Lento said could begin by 2003, and continue for some years thereafter.
   "We don’t want to live next to a construction site for seven to 10 years," she said. "This area has always been a very nice neighborhood to be in — open space, lots of trees, kids playing outside — and they’re changing all that into an office park."
   Ms. Bryam said that if Sarnoff cannot be persuaded to considerably scale back its plan, her group will try to convince the research company to purchase residents’ homes so they can live elsewhere.
   "If we can’t stop it, then we’d rather move out," said Mr. Bryam, who said she and her husband moved to the neighborhood two years ago as newlyweds with plans to raise a family.
   "We’re still trying to catch our bearings," she said. "So many people were shocked by the magnitude of the plan."
   "We try to be good neighbors," Mr. Lento said, adding that Sarnoff has promised to take residents’ worries into consideration as it moves forward with its proposal to the township.