GUEST OPINION
By Jim Waltman, SB-MWA
Much has been said and written about the proposed large commercial development (Berwind Property Group) on Carter Road now before the Hopewell Township Planning Board. The project has raised serious concerns about impacts to the environment, traffic, the historic Mt. Rose community and other quality-of-life issues.
Today (May 29), the Hopewell Township Planning Board will most likely vote on the proposal. As it deliberates, the Watershed Association urges the board to consider the many fine suggestions offered by Hopewell Valley residents to limit the damage from this proposed development. We also urge the following:
1. The Planning Board should reject the developer’s request for a waiver from the township’s stream corridor protection ordinance. The ordinance prohibits disturbance and development within 150 feet of Hopewell Township’s streams and water bodies. The developer has no right to such a waiver and the Planning Board should stick by its environmental regulations.
Moreover, just last week the commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection signed a rule to protect the Stony Brook and tributaries (two of which are located on the property) from development within 300 feet of the streams in order to better protect the waterway’s “exceptional ecological significance.” Any development on the site must respect this new rule.
2. During testimony about the traffic and affordable housing obligation that will be generated from the project, the developer asserted that the development would employ 2,300 people. The proposal, however, calls for some 3,200 parking spaces. The Planning Board should sharply reduce the parking to reflect the asserted occupancy of the buildings. With this change, the development could be reconfigured so that many hundreds of trees could be spared and the development could be moved away from water bodies.
3. The General Development Plan adopted for this tract 10 years ago requires the developer to demonstrate, before securing building approvals, that it will not violate an existing cap on wastewater flow. The developer has not demonstrated that it can stay within this cap. In fact, past wastewater flows at the site — with far fewer employees than what is planned — suggest that the wastewater allowance would be exceeded well before they build all of the proposed office space. Therefore, the Planning Board should not approve all of the proposed development. In particular, the board should reject proposed Building #5, which would appear to cause the most severe environmental damage.
The Planning Board has heard from many concerned residents through many hours of testimony over nearly five months. Now it must make a very careful decision that reflects the best interests of our Valley while being consistent with our zoning, local and state regulations, and the General Development Plan approved for the site.
Jim Waltman is executive director of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.