Town plan calls for retail site

Mulling continues over zoning for shopping.

By: Al Wicklund
   MONROE — A proposed amended Master Plan that includes 6-acre, single-family building lots in the southern part of Monroe Township and a retail site in the northern part, had its first night of a public hearing Monday.
   Planning Board Chairman David DeMarco said the hearing will be continued 7 p.m. June 23.
   The Planning Board could then adopt the revised Master Plan. When approved, the plan will go to the Township Council which will make the necessary changes in zoning.
   The Master Plan had its last major amendments made in 1998.
   The biggest change in the 2003 plan is the residential/farmland zone, a 5,400-acre area that follows the boundaries of the previously designated Agricultural Development Area that will require a minimum of 6 acres for a residential building lot. The previous lot size was 3 acres.
   Township Engineer Ernie Feist said Wednesday the doubling of the required acreage for a building lot increase the number of houses that could be built in that area by 50 percent.
   The area covers acreage on both side of Federal Road from Cranbury Township line to Manalapan Township.
   Looking at the area’s zoning history, Mr. Feist said what is now zoned for 3 acres — and probably will be for 6-acre lots — was once zoned for three-quarter-acre building lots.
   He said a good part of the 5,400 acres is currently in farmland, heavily wooded or wetlands.
   Mr. Feist said a retail area at the juncture of Spotswood-Englishtown Road and Mounts Mills Road could give residents of that area a much needed, more convenient option for shopping.
   Mr. DeMarco said before the 7 p.m. public hearing began that there would be an 11 p.m. cutoff time. The speakers – 19 of them – kept their comments to the point and the meeting was ended by 10.
   Mayor Richard Pucci, however, requested before the hearing began that the board not vote that evening, but hear everyone and schedule a second meeting to allow for additional comment and changes in the Master Plan maps adjusting for typographical errors and other possible adjustments suggested during the hearing.
   Those who spoke at the hearing covered a wide range of subjects.
   Edward Cohen of Chichester Place, who worked on the East Brunswick Master Plan, and Roger Dreyling of Perrineville Road stressed the need to control development.
   Mr. Cohen said there’s a need to ease the strain growth is placing on the school system.
   Mr. Dreyling favored the change from 3-acre to 6-acre zoning. He spoke for hiking trails on high, dry ground and was the lone voice to question what’s being done to save wildlife.
   Warren Barnes of Schoolhouse Road said the historic site of George Washington’s troops’ encampment the night before the Battle of Monmouth should be saved.
   Irwin Kesner of the Encore community told the board that those interested in the hobby of flying radio-controlled model airplanes were looking for small piece of property to use.
   Morley Melvin of Greenbriar at Whittingham said Monroe is "the only place in the United States" where houses are placed without regard to providing shopping centers.
   Cindy Dziemba-Paglia, an opponent of putting the new high school on Thompson Park land, said, "With 63 percent of the township undeveloped it’s hard to believe there’s nothing else available (for a high school site)."
   Harold Lichtman and Nancy Prohaska also expressed their disappointment in the proposed used of parkland for a school.
   Ruth Banks of Lee Lane, president of the Monroe Township League of Women Voters, said the league’s concern for conservation of natural resources has led to a support for planning to save these resources with a focus "on rivers, streams and brooks, wetlands and flood plains, watersheds and aquifers; on water pollution from runoffs of fertilizers and pesticides and contaminated sites; (and) on availability of potable water in the future."