MANALAPAN — The Planning Board has approved an amended plan for a sports training facility and granted final approval for the facility’s construction.
Fields of Dreams LLC received preliminary approval in August 2014 to construct Sportika, a sports training center on 12 acres of a 22-acre tract on Woodward Road, just north of Route 33 and adjacent to a Wawa convenience store.
On April 9, the applicant returned before the board with an amended plan. Field of Dreams is represented by attorney Gerald Sonnenblick.
Under questioning from Sonnenblick, architect Michael Testa, representing the applicant, said the size of the building has been reduced from an approved 192,500 square feet to 169,750 square feet — a reduction of 22,750 square feet.
Testa said the reduction in size was largely accomplished by removing a planned swimming pool from the building. That change reduced the second floor by 19,000 square feet.
An indoor synthetic baseball training field has been moved from the second floor to the first floor. The second floor will contain basketball courts and what the applicant’s representatives referred to as strategy rooms where teams may gather.
Testa said a rear wall of the building was moved inward, cutting 3,750 square feet off the floor plan. The wall was moved in because the state Department of Environmental Protection required the building to be farther away from a wetlands area on the property, according to the architect.
The first floor will include a synthetic soccer field, the baseball field, strategy rooms and a vending area. There will not be any cooking done on premises, although the applicant’s representatives testified that food may be brought into Sportika.
In response to a question from a resident, Sportika Director of Operations Henry Rogan said no alcohol would be permitted.
Sportika will have an outdoor playing/ training field, and the applicant will have the option to make that a synthetic field or a grass field.
There will not be any permanent or temporary lighting on the outdoor sports field, according to Rogan. There will be removable team benches and temporary goals, depending on what sport is being played (i.e., soccer or lacrosse).
Engineer Bhaskar Halari testified on behalf of the applicant and said the site is served by public sewer and water.
Halari said no environmentally sensitive areas on the property would be touched by the prefabricated Sportika building or disturbed in any way. Ten acres of the 22-acre site will remain undeveloped.
Sportika will be open 7 a.m.-11 p.m. seven days a week as permitted by Manalapan’s code, Sonnenblick said.
Manalapan Fire Official Richard Hogan, who sits on the Planning Board, asked Rogan if the building could be used for municipal purposes in the event of an emergency, and Rogan said it could be used if needed.
The applicant will provide 398 paved parking spaces. The initial plan did not provide for all of the parking spaces to be paved at the time the facility opened, but Sonnenblick said the applicant decided to pave all of the spots during construction so as not to have to come back at a later date and pave what was previously identified as a grass parking area.
Traffic Engineer John Rea, representing the applicant, testified that an application will be made to the state Department of Transportation for two items: lengthening the lane on Route 33 eastbound that motorists enter when they want to turn onto Woodward Road northbound (toward Sportika), and adding time to the green light for vehicles coming from Woodward Road to Route 33.
At the conclusion of the testimony, Hogan made a motion to draw up a positive resolution for the amended plan.
Hogan and board members John Castronovo, William Garcia, Chairwoman Kathryn Kwaak, Daria D’Agostino, Alan Ginsberg, Mayor Jack McNaboe, Deputy Mayor Mary Ann Musich, Kevin Uniglicht and Barry Jacobson voted “yes” on the motion.
Rogan said the owners hope to be able to open Sportika in the first quarter of 2016.
The two closest residential developments to Sportika are Knob Hill and the Four Seasons adult community, both on Route 33. There are several homes on Woodward Road in close proximity to the site.
A sports training facility is a permitted use in the Special Economic Development zone on Woodward Road, according to previous testimony.