Residents wary over Renaissance retail plan

The concerns range from increased traffic to child safety and bothersome parking-lot lights.

By: Al Wicklund
   JAMESBURG — Officers from Renaissance Properties Inc. of Marlboro know residents of Beaverbrook Run are concerned about a possible proposal for an office building on Forsgate Drive.
   The concerns — ranging from increased traffic to child safety and bothersome parking-lot lights — came up when the Renaissance officers discussed the building they are considering for a Forsgate Drive lot across the road from Beaverbrook Run town houses and bordering the backyards of residences on Half Acre Road.
   Robert McDaid, president of Renaissance Properties, Inc., of Marlboro and Gary Hipko, a broker and associate with the company, attended an open meeting of the Beaverbrook Run Association at the borough’s Grace M. Breckwedel School.
   They talked about use of the 21,000-square-foot, two-story Renaissance Commons for a combination of first-floor, nonfood stores and business officers on the second level. They also mentioned seeking a variance from then borough’s Land Use Board.
   The two-acre property currently has a variance to permit construction of a building limited to business offices in the area which is zoned residential.
   More than 40 association members and members of the public filled the school library Most came to listen, but several questioned putting the building on heavily trafficked Forsgate Drive in the midst of homes.
   Residents said the proposal for the inclusion of retail businesses has great potential to increase traffic and danger to residents, particularly children.
   Mr. McDaid said the Renaissance company hasn’t made a proposal to the borough yet, but is developing a request for a new variance.
   Mr. McDaid, who recently took ownership of the land, told the audience his land is zoned for office use; a variance for that use in a residential zone was granted by the borough Land Use Board in 1993.
   To include retail businesses in the building, he will need another variance, he said.
   Mr. McDaid said plans were in the formative stage, but that he and his associates were interested in constructing a building with six to eight retail and professional enterprises — none of them a 24-hour convenience store — on the lower level and offices, possibly including medical offices, on the second level.
   An artist’s sketch he offered to the audience to pass around showed first-level storefronts labeled insurance, jewelry, travel, cards and gifts, fitness, mail and copy and dentist.
   Mayor Tony LaMantia said Wednesday there was speculation around town about plans for the building lot, but, to this point "it’s just talk."
   He said no one has brought a proposal in writing for the Land Use Board, the borough’s planning and zoning body.
   The mayor said that as of Wednesday there was nothing on the agenda for a proposed Renaissance Commons for the board at its next meeting on Sept. 13. The board meets next on Oct. 11.
   Mr. McDaid told the Beaverbrook Run audience that his organization couldn’t have anything ready for the board before October.
   Barbara Carpenter, a resident of Half Acre Road and a Borough Council candidate, whose property backs onto the site of the proposed building, said she is concerned about the traffic the building would generate.
   She said the property has changed hands twice since the variance for an office building was given eight years ago.
   Ms. Carpenter said she and her husband opposed the use variance eight years ago, losing appeals at the borough level and in the courts.
   She said another problem she sees is that the building site is on a curve in Forsgate Drive that she believes is dangerous.
   "I’m afraid the site would be an accident waiting to happen," she said.
   At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. McDaid said he believed other public meetings would be of little value, but suggested the association and others in the neighborhood get together, put their ideas for the property on paper and appoint a committee of two to four persons to meet with Renaissance for possible modifications as the plans for the building are put together.