COLTS NECK — The zone that encompasses the Laird and Company bottling factory off Laird Road and Route 537 could soon undergo changes.
The Colts Neck Township Committee introduced an ordinance at its Feb. 26 meeting that would turn the municipality’s only light industrial zone into a distillery and bottling plant district. Permitted uses and development regulations would also be altered in the area, whose sole tenant is currently the Laird’s AppleJack brandy plant.
“We took some things away that we did not feel were consistent and we added some things in that were more consistent, with the object being not to penalize a 200-year-plus resident of what was [here] long before Colts Neck,” Mayor Russell Macnow said.
The proposed ordinance would allow microbreweries, assisted living facilities, flex space for local businesses, an indoor recreation space, self-storage companies, public parks, detached single-family dwellings, warehouses, professional offices and government buildings in the zone.
New accessory uses would include business offices, research-and-development labs for a distillery, seasonal farmstands and screened solar panels, along with restaurants, a cultural center and public tours that are associated with a distillery, according to the ordinance.
The restaurant would be limited to a gross floor area of 3,000 square feet and 125 seats, according to the document.
“We do not want this turning into a 1,000-seat revolving door where your traffic becomes more intense and it ceases to become what it is,” Macnow said at a prior committee meeting.
The ordinance, if adopted, would enable Laird’s to conduct tours of its plant from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The cultural center could host civic groups such as local scouts or elementary school classes, but could not accommodate members of the general public, according to the ordinance.
Macnow said the move could provide Laird’s with the opportunity to eventually expand to include those components, although there are no concrete plans as of now. The ordinance could limit the potential for industrial growth in the Scobeyville section of Colts Neck, but retain the value of the Laird’s property, he said.
“We try to see into the future a little bit, in addition to what can be done in the future by that property owner,” Macnow said of the ordinance and the goals of Colts Neck’s long-range planning committee.
A representative of Laird’s declined to comment on the zoning ordinance and its plans for the site.
Township Planner Tim Anfuso said during a prior meeting that he included several unrelated uses to strengthen the validity of the zone.
“In order for the zoning district to uphold muster, you need to have a variety of uses that are economically feasible,” Anfuso said.
The ordinance would bar experimental, testing and research establishments, fabricating and processing plants, trucking operations and private helipads from taking root in the zone.
Those uses, the mayor said, proved inconsistent with Colts Neck’s master plan.
While township officials said Laird’s could incur fewer expenses elsewhere, Anfuso said he saw no indication that the spirits company has plans to leave the township.
According to the Laird and Company website, Robert Laird established America’s first commercial distillery in Scobeyville in 1780.
Officials said that prior to 1780, Laird was producing spirits in Colts Neck, but it was not at the location that became the home of the distillery.
A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for the committee’s 7:30 p.m. March 12 meeting at Town Hall, 124 Cedar Drive. The governing body may adopt the law after the public hearing.
Contact Jack Murtha at jmurtha@gmnews.com.