Hotel would be built at the intersection of Abeel Road and Interchange Plaza and straddles the border between South Brunswick and Monroe.
By: Paul Koepp
The Zoning Board of Adjustment is set to hear more testimony Sept. 20 regarding a proposed hotel that would straddle the border of South Brunswick and Monroe.
The proposal calls for the construction of a five-story, 93,792-square-foot Homewood Suites hotel, which would be built at the intersection of Abeel Road and Interchange Plaza. Hotel Investors LLC, the company that proposed the hotel, needs use and bulk variances for the project.
In South Brunswick, the proposed hotel site is zoned I-3, or general industrial. That zone permits a hotel subject to 17 different conditions, almost none of which are met by the proposal.
The minimum lot area for the I-3 zone is 3 acres, while the hotel proposal would cover only 2.872 acres. If approved, the hotel would sit on a 1.157-acre lot in South Brunswick and a 1.715-acre lot in Monroe.
In addition, the proposed site does not meet minimum requirements for lot depth, width, frontage and side yard setbacks, and its 71.6 percent lot coverage exceeds the limit of 55 percent.
Other variances would be required to address shortfalls in the number of rooms, the amount of restaurant and retail space, and the number of parking spaces.
The hotel must be approved in both South Brunswick and Monroe before construction can begin. Monroe has already issued use and bulk variances for the project, but final site plan approval must be granted by the town’s zoning board.
In addition, there is a discrepancy between the two towns regarding the number of rooms the hotel would have. Monroe granted variances for a 116-room plan, but the South Brunswick application is for a 121-room hotel. Monroe Township Engineer Ernie Feist said last week that the plans would have to be reapproved in Monroe if the number of rooms is not consistent.
The towns also need to decide how to split tax revenue from the hotel. Both towns have a 3 percent hotel occupancy tax.
South Brunswick Public Information Officer Ron Schmalz said last week that he believes South Brunswick would receive 40 percent of the revenue while Monroe would get 60 percent.

