By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Pennington Borough made a bid to have a say in an application currently before the Hopewell Township zoning board by the CVS company to build a pharmacy and store at the site of the current Sunoco gas station at the corner of Route 31 and Ingleside Avenue.
During the Hopewell Township zoning board meeting held Dec. 6, Pennington Borough’s attorney, Walter Bliss, told board members that Pennington has wanted to assert jurisdiction over the proposed CVS development since the application process began earlier this year, because the property is partially located in Pennington.
The size of the Sunoco gas station site is 2.40 acres in total, with 2.25 acres located in Hopewell Township and 0.15 acres in Pennington. The property sits in an R100 residential zone. CVS is asking for several variances to the residential zoning requirements.
Revised plans recently presented by representatives of the giant CVS Health corporation, which operates thousands of drug stores throughout the United States, call for a smaller store building than proposed in March, fewer parking spaces, plus the installation of sound barrier wall.
In his remarks to the Hopewell Township the zoning board, Mr. Bliss said he was speaking as a representative of Pennington Borough Council — the municipality’s governing body — and not the Pennington’s zoning board or planning board.
The property in question is “is zoned residential,” Mr. Bliss said. “Effectively, the use of the property would change in the event that this (zoning) board granted any approval of the application.”
Pennington, he said, believes that it should have also have jurisdiction over the application, “given the impacts on its residents, its planning, its streets, its quality of life. Pennington should have a say.”
“I would urge you to consider this,” Mr. Bliss said. “I don’t think it would be fair if there were any approval of this application that it not be conditioned on the approval by the Pennington zoning board.”
About the 12-foot-high sound barrier wall that CVS is proposing on the site, the Pennington attorney said that “testimony shows that the sound extends into Pennington. But I leave it to you, Hopewell Township zoning board, to decide whether or not you want the sound barrier. If you don’t want it, fine, don’t build it. But where does that leave Pennington?”
Mr. Bliss also cited state statute describing the “purposes of zoning and the importance of the purposes of zoning in considering the special reasons for the purposed variance.”
“One purpose I’d like to focus on as the representative of Pennington Borough, and that is statute 40:55B-2d. Quote: ‘To ensure that the development of individual municipalities does not conflict with the development and general welfare of neighboring municipalities, the county and the state as a whole.’
“I urge that you consider the importance of that purpose of zoning and the integrity of your zoning in Hopewell Township, which is compatible with the adjoining residential zoning in Pennington in considering this application.”
“Similarly, the Master Plan in Hopewell Township recognizes the importance of working with neighboring municipalities. I quote among the goals and objectives of the Master Plan: ‘To promote cooperation with neighboring municipalities in the region, particularly the boroughs of Hopewell and Pennington (and) to advance consistent development and open space goals and policies and plans.’
“Part of your blueprint for development in Hopewell Township is to cooperate and work with Pennington as it our obligation to work with you.
“This (CVS) development has highly detrimental effects on the public’s good from the Pennington standpoint, and we beg that you consider those, and the promise we would work together in coordinating our planning and zoning.
“In that respect, I remind you that it is difficult enough to do that. As between governing bodies, it becomes increasingly difficult if the zoning is ad hoc.
“The proposed use variance is essentially an ad hoc change in the zoning of Hopewell Township without recognition of the commitments we have already made to work together as municipalities.
Mr. Bliss also talked about the proposed traffic light being considered.
As part of its proposed plan for the pharmacy and store, CVS would request the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to install a full traffic light at the corner of Route 31 and Ingleside Avenue if the Hopewell Township Zoning Board approves the variances requested.
There is likelihood that one or both roads could be widened at the intersection if the traffic signal is installed.
“I don’t think you can act on this application without knowing the implications of that traffic signal,” Mr. Bliss told the Hopewell Township zoning board. “It’s not just the traffic coming in and out of the CVS site, it’s the traffic that would be opened up by an Ingleside bypass — Ingleside Avenue, which is a 25 mile-per-hour residential street that looks like all the other residential streets in Pennington, leading, I may say, to the Main Street of Pennington.”
“It is a cut-through opportunity that has to be considered and a potentially devastating impact.
“What the NJDOT does with the intersection if ultimately its decision, but the suitability of this site and the development that necessitates that traffic signal is only your question to decide. That’s for you,” he told the zoning board. “It is clear that this signal is going to happen only if this application is approved. I don’t think you can do that in the dark without considering the potential impact.”
The Hopewell Township zoning board also held a meeting on the CVS application on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
