David Kilby, Managing Editor
MONROE — The application for a new gas station and convenience store on the South Brunswick border brought attention to a possible oversight in Monroe’s Master Plan.
At the Monroe Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting Tuesday night, representatives of the applicant for the commercial site plan pointed out that Monroe’s Master Plan calls for residential development at the site, which is across the street from an old landfill.
Sirender Singh, owner of the property, applied for a use variance to change the zoning of the site to commercial, and the board passed the variance unanimously.
”I think you’re going to find this to be a unique case because of the JIS landfill across the street from the gas station,” said Bob Smith, Mr. Singh’s attorney.
Mr. Smith and Jennifer Beahm, planner for the site, explained how the area should not be zoned residential due to its vicinity to the landfill. Even though it was closed more than 25 years ago, the landfill still could present water contamination hazards for residents who would live nearby, they said.
The 1.7-acre site is at the intersection of Cranbury-South River and Docks Corner roads. There is a single family 29-acre farm next to the property as well.
The proposed station will have 12 pumps, none of them diesel, and would be open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. with an average of five employees at a time — two for the gas station and three for the convenience store, said Trevor Taylor, engineer for the project.
The gas station and store would generate 24 vehicles at its peak morning hour and 36 vehicles at its peak evening hour, Mr. Taylor said. Since the gas station would not have diesel, the only trucks that would come to the station are delivery trucks and garbage trucks.
A 30- to 35-foot-high sign also is proposed for the site.
The closed Jones Industrial Services landfill is on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s list of known contaminated sites. Before the site plan goes to the Monroe Planning Board, the applicants will have a soil test done to be sure the soil on the proposed gas station site isn’t contaminated.
The JIS landfill was opened in 1950, and through the 1960s and 1970s, a large variety of municipal and industrial waste was dumped there. This resulted in significant signs of water contamination east of the site, Mr. Smith said.
He also said if the township keeps the area zoned residential and houses are built there, there could be a health risk for residents, but not for the proposed commercial establishment.
”This whole area is zoned residential,” he said. “Once people find out what’s there, they’re not going to buy a home there.”
He added the one house in the area, which is a farm, is zoned light industrial.
The landfill was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 1983. It was closed in 1985, and since then the groundwater pollution has moved off the site, he added.
No gas station or convenience store franchises have shown interest in Mr. Singh’s site because he hadn’t been granted a use variance yet. Now that a variance has been granted, businesses may begin to show interest, Mr. Smith said.
The board unanimously passed the use variance provided minor details are revisited for the site plan, such as the width and frontage of the property and a required minimum landscape buffer on the property’s edge. Since part of the site impacts county road Route 535, the applicants will have to go to the Middlesex County Planning Board for approval as well.

