MILLSTONE – An application for a warehouse that was previously approved by the Planning Board has been granted a one-year extension amid potential amendments that may be made to the approved plan.
In December, the board granted 33 Associates/River Center, LLC, a one-year extension of time through Dec. 10, 2018 for the construction of a warehouse on old Route 33 and Farrington Boulevard, Millstone Township. Attorney Bill Mehr represented the applicant.
The application for the warehouse received preliminary and final site plan approval from the board in 2014. The approved application was for a 94,500-square-foot warehouse/storage area, an 8,000-square-foot showroom with administrative offices, 44 parking spaces, a single tenant and two entrances on Farrington Boulevard.
Mehr said 33 Associates/River Center was seeking a time extension because the company’s representatives are in discussions with a potential buyer/user who would store dry goods in the approved building and distribute them to stores along the east coast.
This is the second one-year extension of time granted to 33 Associates/River Center. The previous extension expired on Dec. 10, 2017.
The second one-year extension follows an appearance by representatives of 33 Associates/River Center before the board in August to discuss a possible plan to reduce the size of the warehouse and permit multiple tenants.
According to the applicant’s representatives and to board attorney Michael Steib, the proposed changes would reduce the warehouse/storage area to 84,000 square feet, reduce the office space to 3,000 square feet, reduce the number of parking spaces to 41, allow multiple tenants and reduce the number of entrances to one.
Steib said the applicant had been advised by real estate professionals that there is no demand for a single tenant building and he said the building was required to be scaled down by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection due to its waste water management plan.
Although Mehr reasoned the reduction of the building’s size was a benefit, board members were concerned about the amended application’s potential impact on traffic that could result from an increase in loading spaces and by having only one entrance to the site. To address those concerns, the board members asked the applicant to submit a traffic study.
Board members ultimately voted to have 33 Associates/River Center reappear for a future hearing with a traffic study, to which the applicant’s representatives agreed.
At the Dec. 7 meeting, the applicant’s representatives acknowledged that if there are any changes to the approved site plan, they will return to the board for approval.
33 Associates/River Center was also granted a second one-year extension of time for the creation of nine lots on Route 33, for which the board had granted preliminary and final subdivision approval in 2014. Mehr said the applicant is in the process of finalizing a developer’s agreement.
No date was set for 33 Associates/River Center’s next appearance before the Planning Board.