Planning Board

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 …

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 …

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 …

NEW PROCEDURE – Planning Board chairman Michael Orsini discusses the new Board policy on public comment. Attendees at the September 26 Planning Board special meeting on the B9 warehouses project will encounter something new: a sign-up sheet for those who wish to make public comment. The decision to create the sign-up sheet was made at the Board’s September 20 meeting, …

CROSS-EXAMINATION – Carlos Rodrigues, right, is cross-examined by attorney Peter Lanfrit during the September 6 Planning Board hearing on the proposed B9 warehouse project. Tempers flared at the penultimate Planning Board hearing on a proposed two-warehouse development at Mettlers and Schoolhouse roads on September 6. The tension came when Peter Lanfrit, the applicant’s attorney, was blocked from presenting a witness …

PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION – An artist’s rendering of a proposed mixed-use building at Somerset Street and Voorhees Avenue. The project was approved by the Planning Board. The latest project in the Renaissance Redevelopment area and a medical clinic – both targeted for Somerset Street – were recently approved by the Planning Board. The Board heard the applications at its August 16 …

OPPOSITION IS HEARD – Mary Paist-Goldman testifies about the B9 Schoolhouse warehouse project’s water management plan while attorney Stuart Lieberman looks on. Opponents of a proposed two-warehouse development at Schoolhouse and Mettlers roads got the chance on July 19 to convince the Planning Board that the application should not be approved. The opponents, the majority of whom are Canal Walk …

PAYING RAPT ATTENTION – More than 200 people crowded into the Board of Education community room at its Route 27 administrative campus July 5 for the third hearing on the proposed B9 warehouses. Testimony on changes to a plan to build more than 200,000 square feet of warehouse space at Mettlers and Schoolhouse roads elicited sometimes aggressive questioning from members …