Route 31 area property owners agreed to settle lawsuits after officials rezoned land from commercial to residential
By John Tredrea
Three rezoning ordinances that are key to the settlement of three lawsuits against Hopewell Township were adopted unanimously by the Township Committee on Monday night.
The township and three Route 31 area property owners have agreed to settle four-year-old lawsuits the owners filed against the township after it rezoned their land from commercial to residential. The landowners are JoAnne Else, Trap Rock Industries and Pennwell Holdings. The settlements include a return to commercial zoning of land owned by all three parties.
The three rezoning ordinances were unanimously endorsed by the Township Planning Board on Nov. 10. State land-use law required board review of the ordinances before adoption votes could be cast by the Township Committee.
Township Planning Board Attorney Edwin Schmierer said the township had received letters from Ms. Else, Trap Rock and Pennwell saying they are in favor of the settlement agreements that include the rezonings.
The terms of the proposed settlement of the Else tract, located along the western side of Route 31 near Woosamonsa Road, are that the township will change the zoning of 4 acres from residential back to commercial. Permitted under the rezoning would be retail sales, restaurants, banks, child-care centers and similar uses, Mr. Schmierer said.
Under the settlement with Trap Rock, about 40 acres of land has been rezoned from residential back to commercial under the ordinance OK’d Monday. The land is near Ms. Else’s, off the western side of Route 31 between Woosamonsa Road and Trap Rock’s Pennnington Quarry. Research, manufacturing, restaurants, offices and child-care facilities are among the uses to which Trap Rock could put the land, Mr. Schmierer noted.
During the public hearing on the ordinance pertaining to the settlement with Trap Rock, David Descodeau of Woosamonsa Road said he was concerned that Trap Rock might begin using a driveway off Woosamonsa Road in addition to a driveway off Route 31, just north of the Woosamonsa intersection. Township Engineer Paul Porgorzelski said Trap Rock already has agreed not to use the driveway off Woosamonsa Road. He said he would contact them to ensure that they do not.
The Pennwell Holdings settlement involves the Kooltronic plant, located on 100 acres on the eastern side of Route 31, at the junction of Route 654. Under the settlement, 40 of the 100 acres would be reserved for future expansion of the Kooltronic plant enough to double the size of plant, Mr. Schmierer said.
The remaining 60 acres would be a new zone Hamlet Light Industrial. The idea, developed by planner Michael Bolan and praised by Mr. Schmierer as a great idea and "very creative," is to allow establishment of a small village on the property. In addition to some commercial use, there could be up to 150 residential units on small lots.
They would be built, Mr. Bolan said, by transferring development rights from privately owned open space parcels in the township. In this way, between 450 and 1,000 acres could be preserved as open space, he said, while providing housing at a relatively low cost for Hopewell Township. The project would involve paying the landowners, who would sell their development rights. Their land would be deed-restricted permanently against development.
Resident Mark Kennedy of Route 654 asked what safeguards were in place to ensure that, if the hamlet were built, it would not have a detrimental effect on groundwater recharge in the area or cause too much stormwater runoff.
Mr. Pogorzelski and Township Committeeman David Sandahl replied that in order to gain the Planning Board approval necessary to construct a hamlet, a developer would have to demonstrate that the project would not have an overly detrimental effect on the surrounding area.

