Development

COUNTY TAKES OVER – Somerset County will renovate Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park after officials stopped unauthorized work being done by the Franklin Township Marconi Foundation. Plans by a private organization to refurbish the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park at Easton Avenue and JFK Boulevard have been scuttled by Somerset County officials, about two months after the Township ordered that work on …

TIRED OF THE FIGHT – Planning Board member Robert Thomas said he just didn’t care any longer about a house of worship’s plans to construct an arch on their driveway on Cedar Grove Lane without realigning the driveway with one across the street. It took about eight months, but the Jain Center on Cedar Grove Lane won approval for a …

INSISTED ON REALIGNMENT – Planning Board member Robert Thomas told Jain Center representatives that they agreed to move their driveway alignment years ago, but had yet to do it. Representatives of a township temple were once again unsuccessful January 3 in getting Planning Board approvals for a decorative archway planned for the temple’s driveway on Cedar Grove Lane. The difficulty …

TRYING AGAIN – The owner of Rutgers Plaza on Easton Avenue is once again applying to the Township for approval to raze the former Big Kmart building and construct a 200-unit apartment complex in its place. The Levin Company has resubmitted its plan to turn the former Big Kmart building into a 200-unit apartment building. Plans were submitted to the …

WORK STOPPED – The Township construction department has issued violations and a stop work order on the refurbishment of the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park at Easton Avenue and John F. Kennedy Boulevard. Work has been stopped on the refurbishment of the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park on John F. Kennedy Boulevard after it was discovered that Somerset County had not approved …

Applications to build a single-family home on Battle Place and for a “financial” subdivision off DeMott Lane were approved December 7 by the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Venkateswar and Padmaja Vakkalagadda applied to the Board to build a single-family home on a corner vacant lot at 76 Battle Place. The lot is undersized, so the couple also had to apply …

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 …