LAWRENCE: Planners approve office complex parking change

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   The township Planning Board gave its stamp of approval to revised parking plans for a planned office park on Princeton Pike at Lewisville, which belongs to the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., at its final meeting of the year last week.
   RCN Corp., which was the original owner, gained approval in 2000 for a 1.5-million-square-foot office park. There were 10 office buildings and nine parking garages. The office park was to be developed in two phases.
   But when the cable and Internet service provider ran into financial trouble, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. purchased the property in 2001. The pharmaceutical company returned to the Planning Board Dec. 17 to tweak phase 1 of the office park.
   The first phase of the office park had approval for five office buildings, totaling 610,000 square feet, and five parking garages that contained 3,350 parking spaces. Last week, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. gained approval to eliminate the three- and four-story parking garages.
   The number of spaces will be reduced from 3,350 in the garages and a few “surface” parking lots, to 2,328 parking spaces in the parking lots at the office park, which sits on a 134-acre parcel bordered by Princeton Pike and Lewisville Road.
   The nearest home is about 300 feet from the parking lots, landscape architect and planner Thomas Stearns told the Planning Board last week. A “tremendous amount” of landscaping will be added to the parking lot islands, most of which will be deer-resistant, he said.
   Porous pavement will be used on the parking lots instead of conventional asphalt, project engineer Richard Wizeman said. It allows the water to seep beneath the parking lot surface, but it is designed so that oil and other chemicals from cars will become “stuck” to paving material underneath the surface, he said.
   And in the event of an oil spill, the incident would be reported to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Environment, Health and Safety Department for appropriate action. The company has an emergency response team stationed at its Lawrence Township headquarters on Route 206 that is trained to respond to such incidents.
   Asked about the impact on residential wells, Mr. Wizeman said the nearest house is about 300 feet away. He said the land slopes away from Lewisville Road. Baseline monitoring of the residential wells will be conducted before development takes place.
   If the development of the office park disrupts the well, a resident may ask for a new well or to be connected to the city water line that will be installed in Lewisville Road for the company’s use, Mr. Wizeman said. There would be no cost to the resident.
   Traffic engineer Karl Pehnke said there is no significant difference in the traffic impact between 2000 and 2012. Princeton Pike, between the I-95 entrance/exit ramps and Lewisville Road/Meadow Road, would be widened to two lanes in each direction before transitioning to one lane in each direction at Meadow Road. A concrete median would be placed between the northbound and southbound lanes.
   The driveway entrance into the office park would be located on Princeton Pike near Lewisville Road, about 700 feet north of Lenox Drive. It would be opposite the small road that leads into the northern entrance of the Princeton Pike Corporate Center. A traffic light would be installed at the intersection.
   Voting to approve the revised plans, Councilman Greg Puliti — who sits on the Planning Board — said that he was on the Planning Board when the original application was approved in 2000.
   ”This is certainly an improvement,” Mr. Puliti said.
   After the meeting, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. spokesman Frederick Egenolf said the company may decide within the next three to six months whether to develop the site. The company is examining its options for additional office space, he said.