Planners OK CHS’ GDP amendment

Site plan hearing will continue Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
   Capital Health System (CHS) — which wants to build a 237-bed hospital, plus three companion office buildings, on a Merrill Lynch-owned tract of land in south-central Hopewell Township — got one of the OKs it needs Nov. 8.
   Among necessary governmental approvals was township Planning Board approval to amend the General Development Plan (GDP) for the land. The board voted unanimously to grant that approval last Thursday.
   That done, the board began its consideration of the actual site plan for the new hospital. The hearing on the site plan will continue at a special Planning Board meeting on Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
   Merrill Lynch obtained GDP approval for the land in the late 1990s. That approval covered 450 acres Merrill had purchased earlier from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which had owned the land for years.
   CHS is the contract purchaser of the property slated for the hospital. Under the contract, CHS does not have to buy the land until it gets all approvals needed to build the hospital.
   The land is near I-95 and Scotch Road.