The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
An application to build a 4-story, 200-unit apartment building in Rutgers Plaza on Easton Avenue has once again been delayed.
Ongoing hearings on the application were scheduled for September, October and January of 2025, and now the Township’s top planning official says that date is off, too.
The application was set to be heard at the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s January 9, 2025 meeting. But Township principal planner Mark Healey confirmed on December 22 that that would not be happening.
“Applicant asked for an adjournment,” Healey wrote in an email. “Didn’t give reason.”
“We don’t have an alternative date yet.” he wrote.
The application to raze the former Big K-Mart building and some store pads behind it has been bouncing around in the Planning Department for about the last three years. Big K-Mart closed its doors in July of 2018.
Big K-Mart was the last of the township two department stores. Stein Mart, which was on Route 27 in Franklin Park, closed in October 2017.
The plans call for the construction on 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, ranging in size from about 750 square feet to more than 1,200 square feet.
The bedroom breakdown is 61 1-bdrooms, eight affordable one-bedrooms, 99 2-bedrooms, 24 affordable 2-bedrooms, and eight 3-bedrooms.
Plans also call for a 2,950-square-foot club room, a 1,930-square-foot fitness center and 3,580 square feet of residential storage.
Of the 200 units, 20 percent will be set aside for affordable housing.
