By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Testimony will continue tonight before the Planning Board on an application to build a 56-bed drug- and substance-abuse rehabilitation facility on Route 206 at Old Somerville Road and Flanders Drive.
Neighbors, who wonder about the appropriateness of such a center adjacent to a residential area, will be listening carefully. They also question the legality of a 2008 zone change for the property.
Harding Corona consultants met with neighbors at a Nov. 14 meeting at Day’s Inn hotel. The Planning Board had encouraged the two groups to meet.
About 25 residents were at the meeting, which “presented more issues than were solved,” said David Fritz, a Flanders Drive resident.
Residents asked about the background of the applicants and future ownership, specifically asking how the Harding Corona was related to a company named GenPsych, which is being challenged in Lebanon Township on a similar project, Mr. Fritz said.
The residents want to be assured the company that agrees to planners’ conditions to build the project would be the same one that owns it in the future, Mr. Fritz said.
A presentation on security raised questions about cameras, lights, motion detectors and a stockade fence along the property line, said Mr. Fritz.
The residents have created a Facebook page that features a petition asking for the Planning Board to reject the application. It asks the Planning Board to provide evidence the 2008 zoning change, which created the highway service zone in 11 separate properties along the length of Route 206 in Hillsborough, was presented and approved with notification to them, Mr. Fritz said.
Residents have not hired an attorney yet, Mr. Fritz said.
Harding Corona would demolish a dwelling and detached garage and build five buildings with a total of 34,115 square feet on the 8.5-acre tract.
Two buildings of 28 bedrooms and buildings for medical administration, activities and a dining/recreation are proposed. They all would be two and one-half stories (35 feet) high.
This plan is reduced in scope from a previous 73,000-square-foot proposal brought to the planners. In July, Harding Corona filed a new plan as a five-building campus, all for residential treatment.
The project would be located across from the proposed intersection of existing Route 206 and the future Route 206 bypass. The historic Van Der Veer-Harris house is on the opposite side of Route 206.
A tributary to Royce Brook crosses the site along its north side.
Harding Corona would take down 214 trees of varying sizes, according to its proposal. Under zoning rules, that normally would require 482 replacement trees, but the developer shows 160 on his plans and proposes to pay $27,198 under the economic hardship waiver for the remainder.

