By David Kilby, Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — A developer that wanted to turn a previously approved cul-de-sac off Prodelin Way into a two-way street leading to a planned Route 33 shopping center has agreed to make the connection one-way toward Monroe only in order to secure Planning Board approval.
The applicant, Millstone Property Investments LLC, also agreed to widen Prodelin Way near the entrance to its property to allow for a northbound bypass lane so traffic doesn’t stack up behind vehicles stopped on Prodelin Way waiting to turn left into the site. Speed humps also will be installed on the access road inside the property to deter speeding.
The vote was 6-2 March 9 in favor of granting the amended site plan approval. Planning Board members David Kurzman and Thomas Pado voted no.
The applicant had received preliminary approvals in 2007 for a 9,900-square-foot day-care center and a separate 6,000-square-foot flex building on a cul-de-sac accessed from Prodelin Way.
However, in December, the applicant asked to amend the plan to permit a 700-foot-long road that would join its 10-acre Millstone property to the back of an adjacent 12-acre site that fronts Route 33 in Monroe where the developer plans a 32,000-square-foot retail center.
Under the amended site plan approved last week, only traffic headed to the day-care center and flex-space would be able to turn around and exit the way it came in on Prodelin Way. The connector road would narrow from 24 feet to 18 feet wide approaching the rear of the shopping center and become one-way only. Directional arrows would be painted on the pavement and signs would be posted.
The Planning Board had harshly criticized the original two-way proposal in December, saying the long through-street would turn into a raceway between the two properties and dump too much shopping center traffic onto Prodelin Way, a narrow two-lane country road where drivers often exceed the speed limit.
”We did get the message from the board at the meeting in December loud and clear as to what their concerns were,” said John Rea, the applicant’s traffic engineer, prior to the vote last week. “We do believe that the plan that’s in front of the board now addresses the biggest concerns we heard at the previous meeting.”
The most significant change prevents the Monroe shopping center traffic from exiting onto Prodelin Way, but Mr. Rea said he also made another change suggested by the board’s traffic engineering consultant, Dave Horner, who was concerned about the “potential queuing of vehicles” waiting to make a left turn into the Millstone property from Prodelin Way. Mr. Horner asked the developer to provide a bypass lane on the northbound side of Prodelin Way.
”We can, in fact, do that with some widening on our side of Prodelin Way and a slight shift of the centerline,” Mr. Rea told the Planning Board.
Several Planning Board members, however, raised concerns about the potential for accidents if people leaving the day-care center pull out in front of oncoming southbound traffic on Prodelin Way to make a left turn. Mr. Rea responded the maneuver was permitted under the original 2007 approval.
”The difference today is we have an even better, an even safer plan because, as Mr. Horner asked us to do, we provided a bypass lane,” Mr. Rea said. “So, if anything, this is a better plan than the one that has already been approved with a cul-de-sac and no interconnection to Monroe.”
There could even be less traffic emptying onto Prodelin Way under the changes made to the plan because some parents dropping off or picking up children at the day-care center might choose to head to the shopping center in Monroe instead of back out to Prodelin Way, he said.
Mr. Pado, who voted against the plan, disagreed.
”A cul-de-sac kept it safer for the day-care center,” Mr. Pado said.
As a condition of the approval, the applicant also agreed to post signs saying no delivery trucks bound for the shopping center would be allowed to use the connector road. On the Monroe shopping center side, the developer also will put signs in the parking lot alerting motorists there is no entry to the Millstone side. All shopping center traffic would be required to exit onto Route 33 instead.

