Residents again fought a proposed medical office at Ventnor and Oak Tree roads—and the investigative work by one resident raised enough concerns to warrant additional review by the Edison Township Planning Board.
Representatives for cardiologist Dr. Rajendra Patel presented a second round of revisions for the proposed two-story building, consisting of one story of medical office space and one story of non-medical office space.
In response to resident feedback, the project no longer has access from Ventnor, and to reduce the number of variances required, Patel agreed to a smaller building that met the 30-foot height requirement and reduced the impervious coverage to below the maximum allowed.
“We’ve made substantial modifications and ultimately improvements through what we’d call value engineering,” engineer Angelo Valetutto said.
According to Patel’s attorney, James Clarkin, Middlesex County has given Patel conditional approval for the project. Oak Tree Road is a county road.
Patel’s team was seeking preliminary and final site approval at the meeting. This was the applicant’s third attempt for such an approval since the spring.
However, residents, many of whom reside on Ventnor Road, said they felt strongly that they didn’t want the project at all, primarily because of existing flooding issues related to the Coppermine Brook.
Resident Walter Tencza of Ventnor Road, who has been outspoken on the issue before, said he was still opposed to the project. In addition to the flooding concerns that he has mentioned in the past, he said his research since the last hearing has uncovered that an easement exists on the property, and an underground drainage pipe is smaller than what a survey for the project says.
“The master plan says this is one of the most serious areas of personal or private property of a problem in the entire town. So we’ve got to be careful about developing this area,” he said. “This has got to stop.” He recommended the board consider condemning the property and paying Patel for it instead.
Clarkin took issue with many of Tencza’s allegations, based on a lack of specific credentials around flood mitigation. Tencza had brought an engineer, TzeKin Leung, who also spoke on the issue, taking issue with flooding, lighting and traffic. However, Leung’s report could not be accepted, as it was not a final document.
Other residents voiced their flooding and traffic concerns on the project as well, but it was Tencza’s findings that gave the board enough pause to postpone the final site approval. The vote on the preliminary approval was split, with three members voting no.
“The applicant has put on a good case, but there are some open issues,” board member Mark Danielle said.
Board member William Araujo thanked residents for their input on the project and assured them that the issues brought up at the meeting would be looked into before the final approval hearing, which is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20.