By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ROBBINSVILLE The Zoning Board of Adjustment is scheduled to hold a hearing tonight (Thursday) on a Sharbell application to convert 39 age-restricted condominiums for seniors in Town Center into units for people of all ages.
The project, as approved in 2007, had 39 age-restricted condominiums in one building on Robbinsville-Edinburg Road near Union Street. A retail/office building, with a drive-through pharmacy window, was approved at the same time for an adjoining lot at the corner of Robbinsville-Edinburg Road and Route 33. Construction has not yet begun on either building.
A 2009 state law allows previously approved age-restricted housing to be converted to all-age housing if the builder agrees to set aside 20 percent of the units for low- and moderate-income families and the plans meet certain criteria related to site improvements, infrastructure, parking and recreational amenities.
The Town Center conversion application on file with the township now proposes 31 market-rate condos and eight affordable housing units within the one four-story residential building. There would be three floors of condominiums with elevator access above an enclosed parking garage at street level with space for 41 cars. There would be an additional 16 parking spaces outside the building.
The two lots where the condominium and mixed-use building would be built total 3.21 acres. In order to meet the additional parking needs that a conversion to all-age housing would require, the developer has proposed reducing the size of the commercial building from 64,448 square feet to 48,648 square feet. Twenty-one of the 160 parking spaces on the commercial building’s lot would be for the residents of the condominium building, the application says.
Most of the all-age housing units would have two bedrooms, according to the plans. The community impact statement filed with the township says the conversion from senior housing to all-age housing would add five children between the ages of 5 and 17 to the school system.
The zoning board meeting on the Town Center conversion application is scheduled for 7:30 tonight in the Senior Center.
A separate Sharbell application is pending before the Planning Board to convert 150 unbuilt age-restricted senior units approved in 2006 as part of the Gordon-Simpson project near Gordon Road. The Planning Board has held three public hearings to date and is scheduled to hold the next one March 23.
