MARLBORO — Individuals seeking to sharpen their baseball skills will be able to make use of a new 12,500-square-foot facility on Commercial Court, off Tennent Road, after plans for the building were approved by the Planning Board during its March 18 meeting.
The Commercial Court industrial park, owned by Antonio Lucas, contains businesses that include Jonas Gymnastics, Kiddie Academy Child Care and Hoop Stars Basketball. The property is in Marlboro’s Industrial Office Research (IOR) zone.
Applicant Craig Koppelman currently rents a 7,200-square-foot space in the industrial park for his business CK’s Baseball 4U. Koppelman said the facility trains baseball players of all ages.
Koppelman explained to the board members that he wanted to move into a larger facility so he could have an infield with 90-foot bases for his more advanced clients to train on.
Hours of operation vary from day to day, Koppelman explained. He described the facility as being open anywhere from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the weekend. During the week, Koppelman said, classes usually begin in the afternoon when schools let out. He said no tournaments would be held at the facility.
The new building is proposed to be built on a vacant lot on the cul-de-sac of Commercial Court. The 1.2-acre property contains 190 feet of frontage on Tennent Road, but would only be accessible from Commercial Court.
The first floor would contain field space, office space, a room with a view of the field, a conference room and a small retail store that sells licensed equipment, Koppelman said. He described the second floor as containing more office space and a weight room, which would be used by those who are receiving baseball training.
At peak times, Koppelman said, there would be 28 people, including staff members, at the site. He explained that training classes are staggered to try and avoid overlap. Training is scheduled by appointment so the general public would not be stopping by at random times to make use of the facility.
There are 31 paved parking spaces planed for the site. Board members questioned if that number would be sufficient for Koppelman’s business.
According to the township’s calculations based on the size (square feet) of the facility, 63 parking spaces would be required.
Attorney Salvatore Alfieri, representing the applicant, said the ordinance did not provide for a facility such as the one being proposed. Instead, he said the calculations are based on a health club, which the attorney said would have much more traffic then the baseball facility.
Engineer A.J Garito, representing Koppelman, said the property could not handle 63 parking spaces.
When board members asked how their own professionals felt about providing 31 parking spaces, engineer Ernie Peters said the applicant was painting himself into a corner with the strict parking. He said he was comfortable with the number of parking spaces for this particular use, but noted that future tenants with different uses would have to find additional means of parking.
There were some questions regarding the size of the building compared to the size of the lot.
Alfieri pointed to the other businesses that are in the industrial park and noted how some are the same size as the building being proposed, but on slightly smaller lots.
John Leoncavallo, the applicant’s planner, said the property is unique because under the current zoning ordinances the lots would have to be 5 acres, but they are all about 1 acre.
He said there was no clarification as to what size the lots were required to be, so he looked to past approvals for the other lots in the park. He said all the variances are caused by the lot being 1 acre instead of 5 acres.
Richard Cramer, the board’s planner, concurred that the record is unclear as to whether the lots on Commercial Court were supposed to be 5 acres or 1 acre.
Board members asked about the possibility of installing a sidewalk along Tennent Road. Since Tennent Road (Route 3) is owned by Monmouth County, Alfieri said the applicant’s representatives would speak with Monmouth County officials to gauge their feelings on the topic of a sidewalk.
It was stated that a buffer would be provided on the Tennent Road side of Koppelman’s building in order to shield residents who live across the street from the site.
Resident Alexander Ingham, who lives about 100 feet down Tennent Road from the subject property and on the opposite side of the street, was concerned that the buffer as drawn on the plans would not be sufficient.
The applicant’s professionals pointed to thick buffers near the other businesses within Commercial Court and said Koppelman’s baseball training facility would be landscaped in a similar fashion.
Ingham asked if the lights provided in the facility’s parking lot would be on all night. The applicant agreed to place a timer on the lights to switch them off at 10:30 p.m. in order to allow employees time to leave after 10 p.m. closings.
Board Vice Chairman Gerald Bergh said the doors to the training facility should be kept closed so noise does not affect the neighbors.
The board members then voted unanimously to award preliminary and final site plan approval for Koppelman’s application for the baseball training facility.
Contact Rebecca Morton at [email protected].