ShopRite could be in store for Rt. 1 shopping center

Opposing arguments to be heard in July

BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — Rumors have been swirling for years about what might join Target in the Heritage Square shopping center at Route 1 and Stouts Lane.

The answer has finally arrived: ShopRite.

“I have been anxiously waiting,” Monmouth Junction resident Christine Mariano told the Planning Board during its May 16 meeting.

Heritage Square is a 247,000-squarefoot plaza anchored by Target. The shopping center also includes a Best Buy, Staples, PetSmart and others. Mariano said she was present when the board approved the application to build Target in 2007.

“I was sworn in [with] ‘professional shopper’ as my expertise at the time,” she said, garnering laughs from board members.

Pineville Brunswick Associates LLC is proposing a ShopRite supermarket and a building that will house five tenants as the second phase of Heritage Square. Target and the proposed ShopRite will serve as bookend anchors of the center.

“This [proposed] site is on 45 acres,” said the applicant’s professional planner, Christine Nazzano-Cafone. Of those 45 acres, she said 11.75 are wetlands, including a portion of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park.

Nazzano-Cafone said the proposal is identical to Phase I of the shopping center, but it will require five variances from township zoning for issues including parking, signage and the orientation of the proposed ShopRite.

“This site is unique in that it has 11.75 acres that cannot be developed,” she said, explaining the reason for the needed parking variances.

The applicant is proposing 10 wall signs that will indicate which stores are there, including the ShopRite and, tentatively, a Dunkin’ Donuts, a bank, dry-cleaning business and more.

“We could have had one sign, which would make us compliant; however, we believe this would be obtrusive, a distraction and poor planning on our part,” she said.

Nazzano-Cafone said the proposal is in accord with the township’s 2007 master plan, which calls for a variety of commercial uses in consolidated spaces such as this development.

Board member Barry Nathanson said he was concerned about the traffic on Stouts Lane, and asked if the applicant was proposing any sidewalks there.

“My concern is the safety of the high school students,” he said, adding that they frequent the shopping center.

John A. Giunco, attorney for Pineville Brunswick Associates, said sidewalks are only planned on the shopping plaza site.

Mayor Frank Gambatese said the sidewalks would require the approval of the state Department of Environmental Protection due to a stream running along Stouts Lane.

“We are continuing to look at what we could look to do,” he said.

The applicant said it has sent a request to the state Department of Transportation to address the timing of the traffic signal at Route 1 and Route 522. The goal is to ease traffic at the intersection, he said.

Residents said it is a shame that, given the size of South Brunswick, there is not much of a choice when it comes to supermarkets. Many said they travel out of town to do their grocery shopping.

“I think ShopRite coming in is wonderful, and it makes sense,” Mariano said.

Carole O’Brien of Monmouth Junction shared that sentiment.

“When Christine and I heard about this large expansion, we both were excited,” she said.

Experts for Pineville Brunswick Associates concluded their testimony at the meeting. The board is expected to hear testimony from an objecting attorney — Nancy Lottinville of the law firm Gibbons P.C., who is representing a neighboring business — at its July 10 meeting. Lottinville said the board will hear testimony from a site engineer and traffic engineer.