The Holmdel Zoning Board of Adjustment has rescheduled a public hearing for July 11 regarding the proposed development of a New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) regulator station.
According to the agenda for the June 13 meeting of the zoning board, members of the board were scheduled to decide if the application filed by NJNG was complete and could advance to a public hearing that would have included testimony about the project and comments from members of the public.
NJNG is seeking variances to construct a regulator station, access and utilities on a 16.51-acre site at 960 Holmdel Road, Holmdel, according to the agenda.
The company is a statewide supplier of natural gas and serves more than 525,000 customers in Monmouth, Ocean, Morris, Middlesex and Burlington counties, according to its website.
Before any action was taken, Chairwoman Valerie Avrin-Marchiano, Vice Chairman Demetri Orfanitopoulos and board members Don Hern, Lou LoPresti, D.J. Luccarelli, William Nemcik and Anthony Pesce voted to carry the NJNG public hearing to July 11.
In a subsequent interview, Michael Kinney, director of corporate communications for NJNG, said the company’s engineers and Holmdel officials mutually agreed to postpone the hearing in order to “continue the dialogue” about the progress of the application that is proposing the facility on Holmdel Road.
“New Jersey Natural Gas currently operates a temporary regulator station in Holmdel and we are working with local officials to install a permanent regulator station to ensure safe, reliable service to our customers in Holmdel and surrounding communities,” Kinney said. “The regulator station is necessary to reduce gas pressure between the existing transmission system in Holmdel and our distribution system to maintain system integrity.”
Scott Goldstein, president of Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU), said the construction of a regulator station would pose a danger to the health and safety of residents. Goldstein said the same type of facility at 970 Holmdel Road was denied by the zoning board in 2016. He said NJNG is now presenting the facility on a neighboring property.
CILU is a Holmdel-based organization which promotes informed and thoughtful land use decisions, according to Goldstein. He said the proposed facility would be less than two miles from schools, and from water sources that are used for consumption.
Goldstein said that for a second time, residents and members of CILU are prepared to come before the zoning board in an effort to defeat the proposal, which he said NJNG is trying to locate on a scenic byway in Holmdel.
In addition to the zoning board meeting on June 13, the NJNG proposal was listed on the agenda for a meeting of the Holmdel Environmental Commission that same night. The commission convened at 7:30 p.m. after the zoning board carried the application to July 11, but did not hear testimony from any NJNG representatives or members of the public regarding the company’s proposal.