MANALAPAN – At their March 3 meeting, the members of the Manalapan Zoning Board of Adjustment are expected to hear a proposal from an applicant that is seeking municipal approval to construct office/warehouse space in a residential zone in Manalapan.
The meeting will be conducted in a remote manner. Instructions on how to view the meeting are posted on the township’s website.
According to a legal notice published by the applicant, AMBE Holding, LLC, (Englishtown Industrial Park) has applied to the zoning board for preliminary and final major site plan approval regarding property on Center Street/Harrison Avenue in Manalapan, and in Englishtown, to expand the existing industrial park by constructing four flex space office/warehouse buildings.
The four buildings would total 68,851 square feet (53,661 square feet of ground floor space and 15,190 square feet of mezzanine space).
Approximately 48,270 square feet of the total ground floor area/building footprint would be in Manalapan, with the remainder being in Englishtown. Two existing buildings are proposed to be removed to facilitate the proposed construction, according to the legal notice.
The property where the project is proposed is in the Residential Environmental (RE) and R-20 Single Family Suburban Residential zones in Manalapan and in the Industrial zone in Englishtown.
The largest of the four proposed buildings will have a gross floor area of 24,051 square feet, including 5,390 square feet of mezzanine space, and will straddle the border of Manalapan and Englishtown, according to the legal notice.
The other three buildings (the first with a gross floor area of 13,740 square feet; the second with a gross floor area of 20,460 square feet; and the third with a gross floor area of 13,380 square feet) will be entirely in Manalapan.
The existing paved parking area on site is proposed to be expanded.
The property is 29.56 acres in total, 21.63 acres of which are in Manalapan and are the subject of the application that will be before the zoning board on March 3. The remaining 7.79 acres are in Englishtown.
The applicant is seeking a use variance for office/warehouse uses in the RE and R-20 zones which do not permit such uses; lot coverage in the R-20 zone of approximately 22% where a maximum of 15% is permitted and approximately 5.9% is existing; and a variance from the buffer requirement of a minimum width of 50 feet containing no structures where approximately 30 feet is proposed in certain areas and contains a storm water basin, according to the legal notice.