The Monday meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m.in the lower level conference room at the Municipal Building. It follows on the heels of the zoning board’s March 15 meeting to consider the application.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
A special meeting to continue the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s public hearing on a request to convert the historic William Gulick House property into an assisted-living facility has been set for Monday.
The 7:30 p.m. meeting will be held in the lower level conference room at the Municipal Building. It follows on the heels of the zoning board’s March 15 meeting to consider the application.
Brenda Kraemer, the zoning board secretary, said the special meeting was set because the board was unable to complete the public hearing at its March 15 regular monthly meeting. It is unlikely that the public hearing will be concluded at the Monday night meeting, she said.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment meets once a month and there are other applications in line for a public hearing, so the zoning board decided to set a special meeting for the Gulick application, Ms. Kraemer said.
The property owner 3641 Lawrenceville Road LLC has teamed up with CareOne LLC to build a 150-bed assisted-living facility on the property at the corner of Province Line Road and Route 206. The plan calls for demolishing the house and replacing it with a 100,924-square-foot facility.
The farmhouse, which sits in front of the Bristol-Myers Squibb campus, was built in the 1850s by wealthy farmer William Gulick for his growing family. It was built in the Italianate style, which was considered very fashionable in the mid-19th century. It was remodeled in the Colonial Revival style in the early 20th century.
The William Gulick House is listed on the township’s list of historic properties, but it is not included on the State Register of Historic Places or the National Register of Historic Places. Inclusion on the township list or the state or national lists does not preclude an owner from tearing down a building.
A use variance is needed because assisted-living facilities and nursing homes are not permitted uses in the Environmental Protection-1 zone. The EP-1 zone allows single-family detached houses, farms and public parks and recreation.
An assortment of other variances are being requested.
A variance is being requested for the height of the proposed building. The application calls for constructing a 40-foot-tall building, but the township’s land use ordinance permits a maximum height of 35 feet.
The maximum impervious surface ratio permitted in the EP-1 zone is .08, but the applicant is proposing a ratio of .36. The impervious surface is the amount of land that would be covered by the building and the parking area surrounding the building.
Also, the proposed parking lot would be set back 9.5 feet from the property line, but the land use ordinance calls for a 25-foot parking setback. The plan shows 94 parking spaces, but the landing use ordinance requires 50 parking spaces.
More than two dozen residents attended the March 15 public hearing. About a half-dozen audience members raised concerns about increased traffic, noise from ambulances, the appearance of the proposed building, and how the proposal would diminish the residential feel of the neighborhood.
At the March 15 public hearing, attorney Steven Rother, who represents the applicant, told the zoning board that the Gulick site is necessary for the project because all other sites that allow for construction of an assisted-living facility and nursing homes in the township are unavailable. Those uses are permitted in the Senior Citizen Residential zone.
This is the third time that the developer has sought approval to build an assisted-living facility and nursing home on the 6.4-acre property. The zoning board rejected a use variance application for an 84-bed facility in 1997.

