Residents fight plan for
medical building, VFW
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer
A plan to build a medical facility on the current site of VFW Post 133 has some East Brunswick residents in an uproar.
Diversified Equities and Management Co., Linden, is seeking a use variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to construct an approximately 20,000-square-foot medical building at 485 Cranbury Road. Under the plan, the developer would build the Veterans of Foreign Wars a new post at the rear of the property, fronting on Evergreen Boulevard. The VFW’s present building is about 50 years old, Post Commander Marty Michlik said.
The plans call for the developer to purchase the property from the VFW and subdivide it into two parcels — one a 1.93-acre site for the medical facility, and the other 0.93 acres for the new VFW post. The current post would be demolished and the new one built at no cost to the VFW.
The medical facility, which would be used by the University Radiology Group, would be a state-of-the-art facility, according to Dr. Steven Schonfeld, a member of the group who testified at the Zoning Board’s July 18 meeting.
The new VFW post would be about 4,500 square feet and would allow the post to be handicap-accessible, according to Larry Mazzuchetti, senior vice commander of the post, who also testified at the meeting.
Because the property is zoned as residential (R-2), the developer needs a use variance from the board. The application also requires the issuance of bulk variances in order to proceed with construction.
Testimony on the application began during a Zoning Board hearing last week in which residents, many of them opposed to the plans, packed the meeting room alongside VFW members, who support the plans.
Many of the residents were from the nearby Colonial Oaks development, and they argued that building the medical facility would greatly affect their quality of life.
"This proposal would increase traffic in our community, overburden a street not made for such traffic, jeopardize the safety of our children, and have a negative impact on our property values, not to mention ecological, noise, drainage and other detriments," Lynn Lutwin told the Sentinel.
The residents were particularly concerned that there would be only two access roads to the site, one on Cranbury Road and the other off Evergreen Boulevard, which runs directly through the Colonial Oaks development.
Mazzuchetti testified that the current VFW facility is in constant need of repairs and that the group does not have the funds to keep up the building. Another problem is that it is not accessible to people with disabilities, making it hard or even impossible for some veterans who are disabled. The group brings veterans to its facility for various functions, but disabled veterans cannot be brought there because it is not handicap-friendly.
He said the VFW post, which is nonprofit and has about 210 members, has been offered $250,000 for the property from the developer. The new one-story post would be built and funded completely by the developer.
The current facility has about 5,300 square feet, but is two stories and has no elevator, making it even harder for a disabled person to get around, Mazzuchetti said.
The proposed building would be 4,500 square feet, he said, and all one level with no basement.
He said the functions the post holds will not change.
Schonfeld testified that his group has offices in several communities, but that its flagship office is in East Brunswick. Its corporate headquarters are located right behind one of its present branches at 579 Cranbury Road.
The doctors from the group work at various local hospitals and the group itself treats many local residents, he said.
Victor Angeline, a general partner with the radiology group, said the company chose to locate its new offices on Cranbury Road because it is so close to the current site, which would remain as its corporate headquarters.
Angeline said the medical group is a good source of tax revenue for the township.
"You’d be keeping an excellent flagship medical group in town," he said.
Residents jumped at the opportunity to question the applicant’s experts and also to make statements against the plans.
Frank Kovacs said he lives near the VFW post and that there is already a lot of noise coming from the site. He said he is concerned that nuisance issues will continue or get worse if the post gets its new facility. He said the noise has bothered his infant daughter, and that he has called the police about it on several occasions.
"Nobody here is against the VFW," he said. "What we’re against is what’s happening to our development as a result of it."
Mazzuchetti responded that residents can expect less noise from the new facility because of the way it will be constructed. He also said that if the VFW was notified of any noise complaints, it would promptly address the matter.
David Edelburg, an attorney hired by a group of Colonial Oaks residents, said the 160-unit development would face a massively negative impact if the plan goes through. He said having a roadway with traffic from both the VFW and a new medical facility would become a nuisance for residents.
He said the problem is compounded because the medical facility would be open seven days a week.
Edelburg said the question is whether the facility would benefit the "general welfare" of the community so much that its existence would outweigh the "massive" traffic problems it would cause.
Schonfeld testified the facility would be open 7:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. on weekdays, with some work being done from 7:30-9 p.m. It would also have hours on Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Schonfeld said the medical group would be leasing the space from Diversified Equities and Management.
"The offer we were given is an offer we can’t refuse," Mazzuchetti said.