Planning Board sends Ford plan back to council Unanimously passed with key suggestions for council consideration BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer EDISON - The Planning Board put its seal of approval on the Ford Plant Redevelopment plan on July 31, sending it back to the Township Council for final adoption. The plan lays out parameters for what a prospective developer can and cannot build on the site and in what size or ratio those permitted uses can be implemented. Some of those parameters include limiting the site to two big-box stores of no more than 180,000 square feet; allowing for the building of a hotel and office structure; and setting guides for the building height of each structure on the site, depending on the desired use. A hotel and office building would have a maximum height of 95 feet while a movie theater could reach as high as 75 feet. The average one- and two-story structures have a maximum height of 38 feet and 45 feet, respectively. The Planning Board suggested several key changes to the plan, many based on recommendations given to the board by Henry Bignell, a planning consultant hired by the township to study the draft plan. The plan proposed by Clarke Caton Hintz, an architecture and planning firm, includes fundamental use of "new urbanism," or a focus on pedestrian-friendly elements based around streets and parks, allowing patrons to park their cars once and travel throughout the space on foot. One of the key elements of the plan that the board suggested for reconsideration was the use of "shared parking" to limit the number of parking spaces required for the uses permitted in a future application. The shared parking formula would allow different entities to use the same parking spaces at different times of the day so that the shopping center does not become overburdened with parking spaces, limiting the appeal of the town center elements. According to John Clarke of Clarke Caton Hintz, the best example of shared parking would be between an office building and a movie theater. The office would use the parking during weekdays when its need is greater than a movie theater. On evenings and weekends, the theater would use the parking because the office would likely have a decreased need during those times. Some members of the Planning Board felt that the standard model for parking, which many have conceded is stricter than in other areas, was a better approach. "I think our standard model should be held," said John Soltesz, chairman of the Planning Board. "We have held everyone else in town to our standard." Soltesz also said the township has been burned in the past when it came to offering variances for parking. "And when we have issued variances," Soltesz said, "it has come back to bite the township." Board member Dennis Pipala added that the wording in the draft plan offering a backup in case the developer could not meet the requirements for shared parking was "like going backwards." The plan would have allowed the township's standard model to be put in place if those requirements were not met, and since the township would require more parking spaces than the shared model, it did not make sense to implement it when there are too few spots. Some of the other suggestions made by the board included the elimination of a gas station as a conditional use and the type and size of signage for the property. Other considerations such as possible traffic patterns for the site were not included in the plan; it was simply a mapping of what could be put on the site. Jane Tousman, an Edison resident, expressed concern over the amount of impervious coverage the plan would allow. In the site's current light industrial zoning, a maximum of 50 percent lot coverage was allowed. In the proposed plan, that number could reach 90 percent. "I feel this is overkill," Tousman said. She recommended that to limit the amount of impervious coverage eaten up by parking, the developer should build up instead of building out, implementing a larger parking structure. The township has been working with Hartz Mountain Inc., the owners of the 98-acre property, for months, and the redevelopment plan reflects what Hartz Mountain has said they will propose for the site. Jong Sook Nee, an attorney with McManimon and Scotland representing Clarke Caton Hintz, said that this was simply the first step in a long process from conception to groundbreaking, and assured the public that there would be adequate opportunity for them to voice their opinion on the project. Future steps would include the township entering into a redevelopment agreement with Hartz Mountain, and preliminary and final site plan approval by the Planning Board before the first shovel can be put into the ground. As for the redevelopment plan, Jong Sook Nee said that though the board gets its say, the Township Council has the final word. "They are the final arbiter," she said.