Concrete Plant, Residential Balconies, Outdoor Storage Approved By Planning Board

The Planning Board on Jan. 8 approved applications for Trap Rock Industries to build a concrete plant, balconies for a Somerset Street housing development and an outdoor storage plan for a Randolph Road water tank manufacturer.

Trap Rock got the OK from the board to construct a 2,400-square-foot concrete manufacturing plant on its property off Kingston-Rocky Hill Road in Kingston. The company needed a height variance because the project’s proposed silos and cement bins will be 98 feet high, when the township’s zoning ordinance prohibits structures higher than 50 feet.

The plant will be built on the 441-acre property’s southern quadrant, about 617 feet from homes on Laurel Avenue, the project’s planner, Mitchell Ardman, told the board.

Ardman said the project would have “no visual impact” on the surrounding area.

The plant will operate weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., the board as told.

Trap Rock’s environmental compliance officer said the company would start construction immediately to be prepared “for the coming construction season.”

An oversight when plans were submitted to the township led the developer of a 114-unit townhome project bordering Somerset Street and Douglas Avenue to ask the board for 31 variances. The variances were needed because planned balconies would infringe on the zoning ordinance’s requirement of 20-foot sideyard setbacks.

The project is under construction, and the first units are expected to be closed upon shortly, attorney Peter Lanfrit told the board.

“The balconies were not shown on the site plan because they are not on the ground,” Lanfrit told the board. “That was not ascertained until recently.”

The affected units are on the perimeter of the project, he said.

The board approved the application after it received assurances that the developer would shield the balconies from nearby residences.

A Brooklyn-based manufacturer of wooden and other types of water tanks received permission from the board to store raw materials outside his warehouse on Randolph Road. The variance was needed because outdoor storage is not permitted.

Andrew Rosenwach told the board that he didn’t realize he could not do that.

“I apologize,” he said.

Rosenwach said he needed the outdoor storage space because the roughly 100,000 square feet space he occupies does not afford enough room for the material.

Rosenwach told the board the material would be stored in the parking area, and that he would mark off the area with yellow paint.

The location will also be used to manufacture a line of cooling towers and a line of outdoor furnishings, he said.

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