Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The Hopewell Township Planning Board has recommended five parcels of land, including the ShopRite grocery store on Route 31 at the Pennington Circle, to be considered “an area in need of redevelopment.”
The Planning Board, which had been asked by Township Committee to review the parcels, made its recommendation following a public hearing at its Sept. 7 meeting.
The five parcels include the ShoprRite grocery store, the Wells Fargo Bank, a three-bay service station, and two vacant lots – one of which is owned by Hopewell Township – on Route 31 and County Route 546.
Planning consultant Frank Banisch, who was retained to conduct a preliminary investigation into whether the tracts should be considered to be an area in need of redevelopment, outlined his findings before the Planning Board and a handful of attendees.
Three of the five lots meet at least one criteria to be named “an area in need of redevelopment,” based on the state Local Redevelopment and Housing Law, Banisch wrote in his report.
The two parcels – a triangular sliver of land on Route 31, next to the ShopRite grocery store, and the Wells Fargo Bank lot on County Route 546 – are included because they are adjacent to the other three parcels.
The other three parcels meet at least one of several criteria for designation as an area in need of redevelopment – starting with the 10-acre lot occupied by the grocery store.
“With a sea of asphalt surrounding the building, a holding tank for septic waste and a store is undersized for the market, (the lot) can qualify as an area in need of redevelopment,” Banisch wrote.
Banisch pointed to the “obsolescence,” “faulty arrangement or design,” and the “excessive land coverage” in making the case to designate the parcel as an area in need of redevelopment. In its present state, the tract is “not fully productive,” he wrote.
Next to the ShopRite grocery store is a small lot that contains a service station and three service bays, with multiple driveway entrances and exits on Route 31. Banisch pointed to the same criteria – “obsolescence,” “faulty arrangement or design,” and “excessive land coverage” for designating it as an area in need of redevelopment.
A vacant 44-acre lot located at the rear of the ShopRite grocery store that is owned by Hopewell Township also qualifies as an area in need of redevelopment, Banisch wrote.
He pointed to the “growing lack of proper utilization, caused by other conditions, resulting in a stagnant or not fully productive condition of land” – among the criteria set out in the state Local Redevelopment and Housing Law.
“(The five parcels) occupy a strategic portion of the township, where Route 31 – the principal north-south state highway serving this portion of the State – encounters one of the several confusing and complicated traffic circles that can make safe and efficient travel through this area a challenge,” Banisch wrote in his report.
“The comprehensive re-planning of these lands together can provide a variety of benefits to residents, businesses and travelers” – including fewer driveways onto Route 31, an expansion of the ratable base with new and redeveloped businesses, and new housing that contains affordable housing units, Banisch wrote.
The Planning Board members seemed receptive to Banisch’s recommendation.
Planning Board member Jack Belmont said that in more than 30 years, he had watched as a number of repair garages opened their doors and then went out of business at the service station.
But former Hopewell Township Mayor Harvey Lester took exception to the entire proceedings, noting the absence of ShopRite and Wells Fargo representatives at the public hearing.
Lester questioned how the Planning Board could take action without input from the property owners. He asked how the Planning Board could “take away something” from the property owners without informing them.
“I think it’s plain old wrong” not to have given notice to the property owners, Lester said, even though Planning Board attorney Frank Linus told him that the property owners had been given proper notice.
Linus also pointed out that the Planning Board was making a recommendation to Township Committee. It would be up to the governing body to take any action, he said.
Planning Board member Paul Kiss said that a property owner could not be forced to do anything. Township Committee made it clear that condemnation of the land for another use would not be allowed.
