NEW PLAN DETAILS – Bill Feinberg, the project's architect, told the Commission of the changes made to the plan during the July 7 hearing. The township's Historic Preservation Advisory Commission on July 7 approved a certificate of appropriateness for a two-building retail center planned for Route 27, on the site of Somerset County's original courthouse, clearing the way for a project that had twice been sent back for revisions. Tuesday's vote came on the applicant's third appearance before the commission. J.H.T. Properties is proposing the retail center, and commissioners had previously rejected earlier designs as too contemporary and too much like a typical strip mall. "You did a great job. This is much better than what you had, and I want to acknowledge that you did acknowledge and listen to the points that we pointed out, and you covered them," Commission Chairman Pat Shimala told the applicant's team. Architect Bill Feinberg said he drove down Nassau Street in Princeton to study historic building details before reworking the design. "I heard very loud and clear that it was too contemporary," Feinberg said. He said he added a cast stone base, darker brick, gabled roofs with shingles, and decorative crown and dental molding meant to echo older buildings in the area. Commissioners also settled a long-running dispute over the illegal demolition of an historic building that once stood on the property, confirming that an $8,000 fine tied to the demolition had been paid by a previous owner. They added a new condition requiring an archaeological excavation of a possible anomaly detected near the old courthouse site. The property, at 3017-3021 Route 27, sits within the Franklin Township Historic District and once held Somerset County's first courthouse, near the historic Lincoln Highway corridor. An undated review memo from the commission's former chairman, the late Andrew Burian, had laid out a lengthy list of conditions for any development there, including maintaining a "street wall" along Route 27, moving parking to the side and rear of the site, avoiding strip mall-style architecture, and creating an "interpretive landscape element" honoring the courthouse site. Attorney John DeLuca, representing the applicant, said the revised architecture and site plan address those conditions. "We've made our best efforts here to eliminate strip mall architecture and do something that's visually appropriate for the district," DeLuca said. The demolition dispute dominated much of the discussion before commissioners turned to the new design. Commission member Nancy Hohnstein objected to characterizing a 2022 commission vote, which came after the historic buildings were already torn down, as an "approval." "We accepted it rather than approved it," she said. Shimala initially called DeLuca's characterization of that vote "completely false," but commissioners ultimately confirmed the $8,000 fine had been paid in full. "I think that you just hit a term that is so much more acceptable to us, the post-approval," Hohnstein said. "We're still raw about that demolition that you guys didn't do, but of a very important place that got demolished." DeLuca noted the current owner did not carry out the demolition and that Tuesday's hearing concerned only the certificate of appropriateness. "We're here now for a Certificate of Appropriateness, not for a demolition," he said. "I struggle to understand why the commission is stuck on this issue." A ground-penetrating radar survey identified an anomaly that could be linked to the historic courthouse. Hohnstein said she wished the survey had described the finding in more detail, and commission member Bob Lacorte asked that the specific spot be excavated. DeLuca did not object, and commissioners made the excavation a condition of approval. Engineer Jeffrey Haberman walked commissioners through site plan changes, including moving most parking to the side and rear of the property to shield neighboring homes near Orchard Street, and relocating a planned monument marking the courthouse site to the center of the lot, where it will anchor a required outdoor gathering area with benches and decorative crosswalks. Lighting will use low-intensity LED fixtures mounted about 12 feet high to meet the township's "dark skies" standards, Haberman said, and landscaping will include nearly 40 plant species native to New Jersey, maintained under a two-year bond by a professional landscaper. Feinberg also presented a signage plan limited by township ordinance to 30 square feet per sign, no taller than 3 feet and mounted between 11 and 18 feet above the ground. Box signs are not allowed under the ordinance; the plan instead uses individually lit letters. With the certificate of appropriateness approved, the project moves next to the township Planning Board for site plan review. "It takes a team to make a perfect plan," Haberman told the commission.
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