MILLSTONE — Proposed changes to the traffic pattern for a site off Prodelin Way were approved by the Planning Board at the March 9 meeting.
Millstone Property Investments LLC revised the site plan for its proposed day care center and flex-use building, and the board voted 6-2 to approve the application. Board members David Kurzman and Thomas Pado cast the dissenting votes, with Pado noting that he preferred the applicant’s original plan to create a cul-de-sac.
The applicant received preliminary approval in 2007 to construct a one-story, 9,900- square-foot day care center along with a one-story, 6,000-square-foot office and storage building on the 9.87-acre property.
In December 2010, the applicant’s engineer, John Ploskonka, told the board that an adjacent tract in Monroe Township was approved for a bank, office building and flex building and his client wanted to connect the two properties with a road. Board members raised concerns about the proposed connector road becoming a thoroughfare, and the applicant agreed to meet with the township’s traffic engineer to come up with alternatives. The township’s engineer Matt Shafai and traffic engineer David Horner met with Ploskonka and the applicant’s traffic engineer, John Rea, which resulted in the traffic plan presented to the board on March 9.
Rea said his client got the message “loud and clear” from the Planning Board at the December meeting.
“We gave hard, serious thought to what the Planning Board told us,” he said, adding that the new plan addresses the board’s concerns.
The new traffic pattern would allow vehicles to exit the Millstone site and enter the Monroe shopping center, but would not allow vehicles to return that way. Vehicles would have to exit the Monroe site onto Route 33, according to Ploskonka. He also said speed humps would be installed between the two buildings on the site. Rea said the developer would also add a northbound bypass lane to Prodelin Way.
Horner said, “I’m satisfied in terms of safety and traffic engineering.”
Township Planner Richard Coppola suggested painting arrows on the one-way road and creating an additional speed hump. At the board’s suggestion, the applicant agreed to add a “No Trucks Beyond This Point” sign at the site so trucks delivering to the Monroe shopping center could not use it as a cut-through.