B-MS’ 20-year plan gets Hopewell Township board’s approval

GDP allows 1.8 million square feet of additional floor space on the 433-acre site

By John Tredrea
   A General Development Plan (GDP) calling for a major expansion of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s office-research campus in eastern Hopewell Township was unanimously approved by the township Planning Board on Nov. 10.
   The GDP allows 1.8 million square feet of additional floor space on the 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.
   The GDP approved by the board replaces a GDP that had 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 total of 2.8 million square feet of development permitted on the site by the board last week is the same as the amount allowed by Mobil’s GDP. Under the approved B-MS GDP, 18 new buildings will be allowed, all within an existing loop road. Under the Mobil plan, some of the buildings were allowed outside the loop road, meaning they would have been more easily seen from public roadways.
   The approval of the B-MS GDP is good for 20 years, just as Mobil’s was.
   The board’s hearings on the B-MS GDP application lasted for months. During negotiations, B-MS agreed to a number of items not in its original application. Among them were the extension of the Lawrence Hopewell Trail (LHT), which is used by cyclists and pedestrians, from opposite the intersection of Old Mill and Pennington-Rocky Hill Roads to the eastern edge of Stony Brook, which runs along the Pennington-Hopewell Township border. It was Pennington Borough’s request that the LHT extension be made. The trail runs along the southern edge of the B-MS land.
   B-MS also has agreed to put 219 acres of its land into a conservation easement much earlier than it would have under the original GDP application. Under the application approved last week, 144 of the 219 acres will be put into an easement once a resolution of approval of the GDP has been passed by the board. Passage of the resolution is expected within about a month.
   The remaining 75 acres will be put into the easement in phases, as construction is completed on the tract. Under the original application, about 30 acres would have been put into the easement upon approval, with the balance to added in phases.
   B-MS also agreed to remove from the GDP application all references to the possibility of someday seeking public water for the site. All water for the campus will come from onsite wells. The board’s concern was that allowing access to public water might spur development nearby.
   "The open space easement is of great benefit to the township," board member Robert Beyer said. "I think they’ve also been very generous on the water issue."
   "I’m very pleased with it as well," added board Vice Chairwoman Christine Levandoski.