Fieldsboro residents oppose plans for proposed shopping center on Route 130 near Dunns Mill Road in Bordentown Township.
By: William Wichert
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP The township and the nearby community of Fieldsboro are not the happiest of neighbors as the two municipalities continued to face off last week over a proposed shopping center on Route 130 near Dunns Mill Road.
This proposal was one of three applications heard at the five-hour June 9 township Planning Board meeting regarding projects along Route 130, including the construction of a new Mastoris sports bar and restaurant as well as the expansion of Mannino’s Pizzeria.
While those applications each received some level of approval from the Planning Board, board members postponed their decision on the shopping center proposal until the July 14 meeting, marking the fourth hearing held to discuss the proposed project.
Representatives of Mount Laurel-based Freedman Cohen Development LLC completed their presentation of plans to build an Acme supermarket and at least two other stores on the 10-acre vacant site, but the postponement came at midnight after two expert witnesses came forward to testify on behalf of Fieldsboro.
The witnesses a professional engineer and planner said the current application should be rejected and replaced with an alternate design, but George Matteo, the attorney representing the developer, said he would cross-examine the witnesses at next month’s meeting.
The main argument put forth by the Fieldsboro representatives was that the Planning Board should not grant the several variances, or zoning changes, sought by the developer, and instead demand that the applicant submit a new design to reflect the township’s zoning laws.
"The short version is we all recognize this is commercial property and developers have a right to build there," said Donald Nogowski, the attorney representing Fieldsboro. "The question is what should go there."
Mr. Nogowski said the developer has not adequately demonstrated a "hardship" that would justify the variances. Those variances include two requests to allow the developer to provide almost 200 fewer trees than what the current zoning law requires. Other variances would let the builder construct a 10-foot buffer area on Dunns Mill Road, where 50 feet is required, and a 26-foot setback on Rising Sun Road, where 75 feet is required.
"They are jamming too much retail space into this site," said Mr. Nogowski. "What is presented here does not comply with the law."
Mr. Matteo did not get a chance to defend his client through cross-examination, but he still took aim at the testimonies of planner Michelle Taylor and engineer Jay Kruse.
The attorney said Ms. Taylor was making misstatements about the proposed variances, and he said Mr. Kruse was offering assumptions in his testimony about the project’s effect on stormwater management, sewer service, and the road pavement surrounding the site.
"For us to go through this (engineering concerns) … we’ve agreed we’re going to address this," said Mr. Matteo, adding that the developer’s professional consultants and the township’s consultants had already reviewed these details of the plan.
In his testimony, Fieldsboro Mayor Ed Tyler said the decaying pavement on Dunns Mill Road and Rising Sun Road will not be able to withstand the truck traffic coming to the Acme supermarket.
"That road’s going to fail and the township’s taxpayers are going to pick up the bill," said Mayor Tyler. Earlier in the meeting, one of the developer’s witnesses testified that the local roads had been tested and proven to be sustainable for the new traffic.
In other business, some debate also was a part of the hearing of the application to build a 9,000-square-foot sports bar and restaurant next to the Mastoris Diner on Route 130.
Mastoris received final approval from the Planning Board, but two residents, who live near the existing diner, complained about Mastoris’ increased expansion over the years.
Constance Dellahente of Route 206 said she was concerned about security at the sports bar, because people already cross over her property to get to the diner. The township’s professional consultants said there would be enough buffering at the site to make her property inaccessible from the sports bar.
The representatives of Mannino’s Pizzeria received preliminary and final site plan approval of their plans to attach a banquet facility to the back of the existing restaurant.