Thirty-two conditions were attached to the approval
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
Berwind Property Group (BPG) got preliminary site plan approval to build 800,000 square feet of office space off Carter Road from the Hopewell Township Planning Board just before 2 a.m. Friday.
The 8-1 board vote, with Mayor Vanessa Sandom dissenting, came at the end of a long BPG session that began Thursday (May 29) evening. It was the 13th Planning Board session that dealt with the BPG plan, which was vigorously opposed by many neighbors and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.
During the 13 meetings, quite a high number for a single application, opponents said the five-building BPG project would bring much additional traffic, jeopardize groundwater resources and harm the visual landscape and the historic character of the Mount Rose intersection. The intersection, just north of the BPG tract, is a commuter bottleneck already and has been for years.
Thirty-two conditions were attached to the Planning Board approval. Among the key ones are that proof of availability of public water must be provided by BPG before any of the buildings can be erected; that ambient noise will be monitored at the tract; that sewage flows will be monitored at the tract — BPG is permitted 80,000 gallons per sewage flow per day; and that BPG will work with the town on preserving as many trees at the site as possible.
William Connolly and other board members remarked several times during the BPG hearings that the board essentially had no choice but to approve the plan, since it was permitted by the township zoning code.
Mayor Sandom’s dissatisfaction and frustration with the BPG plan were apparent during the meeting.
”What’s the rush with this application? You have no tenants,” she asked while fixedly regarding the BPG team, which did not respond. The mayor also said she was very displeased with the plan’s inclusion of a fifth building — “Building Number Five,” as it was called during the hearings. Building Number Five is the building closest to neighbors.
Other issues addressed by the mayor were noise, the fact that the buildings were not clustered — though they could have been under the township zoning code — and the loss of trees.
Planning board attorney Trisha Waterman said that, contrary to what was argued by the opposition, approval of the BPG plan was not in any way contingent on construction of the Mount Rose bypass and that future state regulations on how close construction may be to some streams had no bearing on the matter.
Opponents have said the plan could worsen traffic and threaten groundwater and the historic character of the Mount Rose neighborhood. Mount Rose, clustered around the intersection of Cherry Valley and Carter roads, is a short distance north of the BPG tract.
”Traffic will skyrocket” if the BPG project is built, predicted Hopewell Borough resident Bill Baumbach during a previous hearing on the matter. “The aesthetics” of the area “will virtually be destroyed,” he noted.
BECAUSE of concerns about existing and future traffic at Mount Rose, Committeeman David Sandahl, also a member of the Planning Board, suggested May 27 that a task force be formed to study the Mt. Rose intersection and make recommendations about its future.
The task force is expected to include residents and township and county officials. Township Administrator/Engineer Paul Pogorzelski and Mayor Sandom said the task force could probably be appointed and begin holding meetings by September. The township’s Historic Preservation Commission, which has asked to be involved in the planning of the Mount Rose intersection’s future, will be represented on the task force, Mr. Pogorzelski said.
On May 27, Mr. Pogorzelski predicted that actual construction at the BPG site is at least several years away.