Hopewell Township planners to continue B-MS talks tonight

Board has until Nov. 18 to vote on the B-MS plan, which already has been discussed in-depth at several meetings

By John Tredrea
   The Hopewell Township Planning Board’s consideration of a proposed major expansion of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (B-MS) research campus on Pennington-Rocky Hill Road will continue tonight (Nov. 10) at 7:45 p.m.
   The regular session is beginning later than usual because the planners expect to spend 45 minutes on the topic of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District’s long-range facilities at a special session beginning at 7 p.m.
   The Planning Board has until Nov. 18 to vote on the B-MS plan, which already has been discussed in-depth at several meetings.
   If approved by the Planning Board, B-MS’ proposed General Development Plan (GDP) would replace an existing GDP, which has been in effect since before B-MS acquired the campus from the Mobil Research and Development Corp. in 1997. The Mobil GDP was approved in the early 1990s. B-MS acquired that GDP approval when it bought the facility from Mobil.
   The proposed B-MS GDP would allow 2.8 million square feet of development on the site, the same as Mobil’s GDP. Eighteen new buildings would be allowed, all within an existing loop road. Under the existing Mobil plan, however, some of the buildings are outside the loop road, meaning they would be more easily seen from public roadways.
   The approval of the Mobil GDP expires in seven years. If B-MS can get its own GDP approved, the approval would be good for 20 years, just as Mobil’s was.
   B-MS is seeking a GDP that would allow an increase of 1.8 million square feet of research and office space at its 433-acre site. There is 1 million square feet there now. The new construction would be enough to bring in 4,000 new employees, B-MS says. Two thousand people work at its township campus now.
   During the past month, B-MS and township officials have met with officials of Pennington Borough. The borough was concerned about the impact the proposed expansion would have on traffic in Pennington. The borough also requested extension of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail (LHT) from its current end-point, opposite Pennington-Rocky Hill Road’s intersection with Old Mill Road, to the borough border. Old Mill Road is about a half-mile east of the borough. The LHT is on B-MS land, along the northern side of Pennington-Rocky Hill Road.
   B-MS has agreed to extend the trail to a point very close to the borough line after the first 75,000 square feet of construction called for by the GDP has been built. The point to which the trail would be extended is at the driveway to a treatment plant of the Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority (SBRSA). The plant is on the eastern side of the Stony Brook, which forms the eastern boundary of the borough.