Development

NOT IMPRESSED – Planning Board chairman Michael Orsini told representatives of L’Oreal that they needed to rethink their building expansion plan. Representatives of L’Oreal USA were sent back to their drafting table by the Planning Board December 6, whose members did not like the company’s plans for a more than 149,000-square-foot addition to their main building on Commerce Drive. The …

PROJECT DETAILED – Alicia Meyers, center, discusses the planned improvements at the DeMott Lane-Easton Avenue intersection during the December 5 Public Information Session. Improvements designed to make the DeMott Lane-Easton Avenue intersection safer for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists were unveiled December 5 at the Township Council Chamber. The Public Information Session was hosted by representatives from the Somerset County Engineering …

NEW OWNERS – A YouTube fundraising video in Arabic describes the Center’s plans for the South Middlebush Road site. Plans for a $15 million, 60,000-square-foot Islamic center – including a mosque, a boarding school, and a state-of-the-art gym – with 400 parking spaces are being laid by the new owners of a 16-acre tract on South Middlebush Road. The land, …

A Public Information Session to educate the public on proposed improvements to the DeMott Lane/Easton Avenue intersection has been set for 4:30-7 p.m. December 5 at the Township Municipal Building, 475 DeMott Lane. The proposed work includes “the reconstruction of the traffic signal equipment, curb, sidewalk, pavement, and median barrier in the vicinity of the intersection. Additionally, the existing multiuse …

MEETING SET – Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said he and several other officials will brainstorm on the best way to ask Somerset County to decertify some County roads for truck traffic. Township officials plan to put their heads together this week and strategize on how to ask Somerset County to decertify some County roads for truck traffic. The idea is …

BAN THE TRUCKS – Planning Board member Robert Thomas convinced the Planning Board to ask Somerset County to look into banning trucks from some County roads. In the latest salvo against the widespread development of warehouses and their attendant truck traffic, the Township Planning Board wants Somerset County to disallow the big rigs on all or parts of some County …

NO MORE WAREHOUSES – Environmental Commissioner Robin Suydam said at the meeting that too many trees have already been sacrificed for development. The Environmental Commission on October 16 decided to recommend that the Township Zoning Board of Adjustment not approve an application for a warehouse at Weston Canal and Cottontail roads. The application, submitted by Somerset Properties Realty, calls for …

An application to build a 91,000-square-foot warehouse on a vacant lot on Atrium Drive is set to be heard October 4 by the Planning Board. The one-story building would have 81,065-square-feet of warehouse space, a mezzanine, 43 parking spaces and 13 loading docks, according to the application. The project is targeted for a roughly 5-acre plot on Atrium Drive extension, …

MOVE TO DENY – Planning Board member Robert Thomas explains his reasons for moving to deny the B9 application. An application to build two warehouses across from the Canal Walk housing development was unanimously rejected September 26 by the Planning Board. The vote came after months of Board hearings, sometimes acrimonious testimony and regular attendance at the meetings by more …

MAKING A POINT – Bob Smith, attorney for Parker at Somerset, speaks to the Zoning Board during the September 7 hearing. The Parker at Somerset rehabilitation center won Zoning Board of Adjustment approval for its plan to re-stripe its parking lot and create an outpatient rehabilitation facility at the September 7 Board meeting. Meanwhile, a township couple wishing to build a …