Fieldsboro files suit over shopping center plans

Seeks to have Bordentown Township planners’ approval of Route 130 project overturned.

By: William Wichert
   After its public arguments failed to sway a decision made by the Bordentown Township Planning Board over the summer, Fieldsboro is taking its neighbor to court.
   The borough filed a lawsuit last week in state Superior Court to overturn the Planning Board’s July approval of an application to build an 11-acre shopping center on Route 130 South near Dunns Mill and Rising Sun roads.
   Representatives of the applicant, Mount Laurel-based Freedman Cohen Development LLC, did not immediately return calls for comment.
   The lawsuit is mostly a continuation of the testimony made by borough professionals at Planning Board meetings earlier this year, when they said the project, which includes a 54,468-square-foot Acme supermarket, is too big for a vacant stretch of land that sits across the street from several Fieldsboro homes.
   "This can be a beautiful development, and the developer can make a lot of money, and we can have a beautiful Acme in Bordentown, if they do it the right way," said Donald Nogowski, the attorney representing Fieldsboro.
   Mr. Nogowski said the borough does not oppose developing the site, but still disapproves of the variances, or zoning changes, approved by the Planning Board that allow the developer to build a project of this size.
   Those variances include permission for a 10-foot buffer area on the Dunns Mill Road side, where 50 feet is required, and a 26-foot setback on Rising Sun Road, instead of the required 75 feet. Other variances allow the developer to provide almost 200 fewer trees than the current zoning law requires.
   The borough’s contention in the lawsuit is that the developer did not demonstrate a hardship at the site that would justify the variances, said Mr. Nogowski.
   "We just believe this plan is an over-development for this land," he said.
   William Kearns Jr., the Planning Board attorney, said many of these variances are routine requests by developers looking to build in the municipality, and they were needed for such an unusually-shaped piece of land.
   "We think the board did it right," said Mr. Kearns, who plans on filing an answer to the borough’s lawsuit within the next 30 days. "In this case, the board decided the variances were justified."
   Both Mr. Kearns and Deputy Mayor George Chidley, who sits on the Planning Board, stressed that the board took into consideration the testimony of the developer as well as that of Fieldsboro residents and professionals.
   The board’s final approval included several conditions meant to reflect the borough’s concerns, including restrictions on lighting in the parking lot and more plantings along the edge of the parking lot to avoid any glare into the residents’ homes, said Mr. Chidley.
   "I’m confident the board’s decision will stand in court," he said.