By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — The township suspended construction of its Gordon Road sewer pumping station Monday, leaving the developer of a nearby housing project that is unpopular with municipal officials wondering if the move was “retaliatory.”
The Planning Board last year rejected Sharbell’s plan to convert 150 yet-to-be- built senior citizen housing units into homes for families of all ages, but a Superior Court judge overturned that decision in December allowing the conversion to proceed. The converted units are part of a 460-acre commercial and residential development called the Gordon-Simpson project that will use 87 percent of the pumping station’s capacity.
Township officials have strongly criticized the conversion of the proposed Sharbell units to all-age housing because of the impact it could have on the township’s overcrowded schools and school taxes.
On Monday, Mayor Dave Fried said he was suspending work on the pumping station because two unrelated Route 130 projects that were supposed to tap into the new sewer lines — the 40,000-square-foot Meadowbrook Commons office/retail development and a 248-unit senior assisted living facility — are not being built. He said he did not want mechanical and electrical equipment installed at the pump station only to sit idle for years, so he was halting the work.
”We currently don’t have a user for the proposed pump station and we will not have one for the foreseeable future,” Mayor Fried said in a statement Monday.
Tom Troy, Sharbell’s senior vice president, expressed surprise at the news.
”I guess he’s not counting me,” Mr. Troy said dryly.
Mr. Troy wondered if the town’s action was a “retaliatory move” connected to his company’s successful legal appeal in the conversion application case.
”I’m not the least bit worried if they are just temporarily suspending construction” of the sewer pump station, Mr. Troy said. “But if this is being used as a tactic to deprive our project of sewer, then I am concerned and I guess that’s something the lawyers will have to sort out.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Mayor Fried said he’d finish the pump station “if the commercial aspect” of Sharbell’s project was ready to move forward.
The mayor has been a vocal critic of the state law that allowed developers like Sharbell with approvals for senior housing to convert those projects into all age-housing. The law subverted the local planning process and the town’s Master Plan, the mayor said.
The township approved a $2.3 million bond issue in May 2010 to run sewer lines along Route 130 between Sharon and Gordon roads to facilitate development projects along the highway. The bonds were to be repaid through the hook-up fees that developers pay to connect to the sewer lines. The pump station must be operational for the sewer lines to be used.
”This project was conceived during a very different time in our local economy,” Mayor Fried said. “The game has changed and by not leaving those parts (of the pumping station) exposed to the elements, we are protecting our investment and not wasting taxpayer dollars.”
The sewer pipes along Route 130 between Sharon and Gordon roads have already been installed under a $1.95 million contract awarded last summer. Mr. Troy said it would behoove the town to finish the sewer project by completing the pump station so that taxpayers aren’t left with the debt service that was supposed to be paid by developers through the sewer hookup fees.
Mr. Troy also noted that the township’s partially constructed pumping station is on Sharbell-owned land.
Mayor Fried acknowledged this was true, but said that Sharbell’s approvals for the Gordon-Simpson project require it to deed the land where the partially built pumping station is located to the township. The town could also condemn the land if it has to acquire it that way, he said.

