HOWELL — The Howell Planning Board has unanimously approved an applicant’s plan to build a two-story, 20,000- square-foot office building on Oak Glen Road.
The board granted preliminary and final site plan approval for the Global Business Park to remove existing storage area and railroad spur encroachments in order to build the facility.
The application was approved at the board’s Aug. 2 meeting on the condition that the applicant successfully provides an environmental impact statement to the Howell Environmental Commission and a letter of intent to the New Jersey of Department of Environmental Protection, both of which are pending, according to the applicant.
The Global Business Park application is not connected with the Global office building on Route 9, which the township purchased in August 2011 and is converting into a municipal complex.
Jeff Spira, a managing member of the Global Business Park, said his organization has a commitment from T&L Property, a billing and accounting firm with about 40 employees, to occupy the second floor of the new office building on Oak Glen Road.
Spira said he believes he will be able to lease the remaining space in the building in short order, and mentioned potential tenants such as clerical or accounting firms. He testified there would not be any medical, dental or veterinarian offices in the building.
He said he does not anticipate the building’s tenants to create a substantial impact on the surrounding area.
“There are not going to be any customers [at the site], they don’t meet people. They go to the customers,” he said. “It’s a perfect operation. It’s clean, it’s neat and there’s not a lot of traffic because very few meetings will take place at the office.”
Spira testified there will be deliveries from firms such as FedEx and UPS to the office building’s tenants, but he said there is no loading area and there will not be any deliveries from large tractor-trailers.
Lee Hoffman, the owner of the property, testified he was vacating the previous approved use of a flex building that he never built “because the economy never supported it.”
A flex building, or flex space, allows for certain limited manufacturing uses.
Hoffman also testified regarding the facility’s proposed fire system, which would be an extension of the system he helped designed and is used by nearby buildings.
The sprinkler system uses two pumps capable of generating 2,200 gallons of water per minute each.
“The whole idea of the system is an early suppression, fast response system,” he said, noting the system is specifically designed to extinguish a fire before it can spread throughout the building.
Charles Surmonte, the project engineer, testified that the site, which was a lumber yard, is clear land and will not require the substantial clearing of trees or other growth.
The property will consist of one access driveway to two parking areas that will include about 140 parking spaces.
The application sought a waiver to install 25-foot-wide drive aisles, which was less than the 30 feet required by ordinance.
The applicant rescinded that request after concerns were raised by board members regarding the ability of emergency vehicles to access and safely maneuver at the site.
Surmonte testified the applicant was also requesting a waiver from the requirement to install a public sidewalk along the property’s frontage on Oak Glen Road due to a lack of sidewalks nearby and environmental issues.
“Given the fact that sidewalks are not anywhere in the area and the fact that a great many trees would have to be taken down and wetlands permits would have to be obtained in order for us to build the sidewalk, we ask for a waiver from that requirement,” he said.
The board granted the applicant’s request for the sidewalk waiver.
As part of the application, a driveway will be included to provide access to a detention basin on the site. Based on concerns from the board, the applicant agreed to build a gate to deter people from trying to access the detention basin.