Planning Board

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Malvika Apte, an engineer who created the Township’s proposed affordable housing plan covering the next 10 years, describes the plan before the Planning Board on June 18. Exactly how the Township plans on meeting its obligation to provide for 659 affordable housing units between now and 2035 was laid out at the June 18 Planning Board …

TARGET AREA – An aerial view of the properties targeted in the Planning Board’s June 4 resolution. Five parcels totaling about 3.5 acres, located along Franklin Boulevard near Lewis Street, were designated as being in need of redevelopment by the Planning Board at its June 4 meeting. The five lots are being eyed by Township officials for affordable housing, a …

ENGINEER TESTIFIES – Craig Stires, the applicant’s project engineer, talks about the warehouse extension at the Planning Board meeting. More than 64,000 square feet of warehouse space will be added to a Cottontail Lane building through an approval recently given by the township Planning Board. The Board on May 21 approved the plan for the 64,515-square-foot addition to the building, located …

EXPLAINING THE PLAN – Shri Kotdawla, the retail/office project’s engineer, testifies to the Planning Board at its May 21 hearing. A developer wanting to erect a two-building mixed-use office and retail center across from the Somerset Run housing development was told by the Planning Board on May 21 to rethink its plans. The plan, submitted by NPH Real Estate, calls …

OUT IN FORCE – Residents – most of whom live in the Somerset Run 55-and-over development – packed the Board of Education’s community room on May 7 for the latest Planning Board hearing on the proposed Onyx warehouse application. Modifications to a plan to build a 91,000-square-foot warehouse at the intersection of New Brunswick and Old New Brunswick roads were …

DENIAL OVERTURNED – Hundreds of residents attended each of the eight Planning Board hearings on the proposed B9 warehouses application. (File photo). In a scathing decision in which he called out what he said was the Planning Board’s “unmitigated hypocrisy,” a state Superior Court judge recently overturned the Board’s denial of a controversial two-warehouse development near the Canal Walk housing …

LEADING THE DISCUSSION – Mark Healey, the Township’s Principal Planner, at the March 26 Planning Board meeting,where a proposed Master Plan reexamination and BI Zone ordinance amendments were discussed. The Township cannot legally outright ban future warehouse development in Franklin, but officials hope actions that are planned for the next few months will give planners more control over where they …

TRAFFIC TALK – Matthew Seckler, the traffic engineer for a two-warehouse project on Veronica Avenue, testifies to the Planning Board at the March 5 hearing. Two warehouses measuring 75,000 square feet each were approved by the Planning Board for a tract of land on Veronica Avenue on March 5. The two warehouses will be located on a 17-acre site next …

NOT PERSUADED – Planning Board Chairman Michael Orsini was not convinced that the Board should vote on final site plan approval for a proposed three-story mixed use building on Hamilton Street. A three-story mixed-used building targeted for Hamilton Street was given preliminary approval by the Planning Board at its February 19 meeting. The building, planned for a half-acre parcel between …

MAKING HIS CASE – Keith Cahill, the project engineer for Onyx 789, makes a point during the January 15 Planning Board hearing. A revised plan to build a 91,000-square-foot warehouse on a tract of land between New Brunswick and Old New Brunswick roads received a chilly reception January 15 from the Planning Board. The new plan represents an attempt by …