By Frank Mustac, Contributor
During a recent committee meeting in Hopewell Township, officials and residents alike weighed in on the future of the Bristol Myers Squibb office complex and its potential use for affordable housing., Late last year, the pharmaceutical and health products company announced its intention to gradually move out of Hopewell Township, and fully vacate its 400-plus-acre Pennington-Rocky Hill Road location and a smaller site on Carter Road by 2020., Because Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) currently represents about 5.9 percent of Hopewell Township’s tax base, township leaders are hoping the office complex will be fully occupied after BMS sells the property., Though Mayor Kevin Kuchinski has called for scheduling a series of outreach sessions for residents to offer input on the future of the larger BMS site, a few residents in attendance at the Feb. 27 meeting asked questions and voiced their comments and concerns., Jim Burd, a former Hopewell Township mayor, spoke first during the public comment portion of the meeting, suggesting that the BMS property would not be an ideal location for low- and moderate-income home buyers and apartment renters, since there is no public transportation available nearby., Hopewell Township Attorney Linda Galella responded to that assertion by saying that there is no rule or regulation under the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) that requires public transportation for a piece of property to be considered for affordable housing., “What COAH says is if you have public transportation, it’s more desirable and more site suitable, but it’s not required under COAH’s rules and regulations,” the attorney said. “We still go by the COAH rules and regulations.”, Burd also suggested that the sewerage treatment facility on the BMS property was not designed for residential use., “From COAH’s prospective, just preliminarily, I think it would meet COAH’s suitability requirements because there is sewer out there,” Galella, the township attorney said., Burd also said that any change to the zoning at the BMS property would be “detrimental to the township in general.”, “I think that’s something that needs to be evaluated before any decisions are made in regards to this,” he said., In response, Committeewoman Vanessa Sandom said that nearly every property in the township’s affordable housing plan “has been recognized by the planning board as being a place where we could put affordable housing would also require a change in zoning – every single other one.”, Bruce Gunther, a former member of Hopewell Township Planning Board, spoke in favor of the outreach meetings recommended by Mayor Kuchinski that would take place at different venues around Hopewell Township., “I think that along with going around and talking with the various communities about affordable housing, we have an obligation to educate the public as to what this is all about,” Gunther said. “I think that as you go to the communities and you talk to the people … you’re going to get much more understanding, much more dialogue, much more agreement on something for the community.”
