Former Zoning Board member reflects on tenure BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer KATHY CHANG Robert T. Anderson sits before a stack of documents as he has for years while serving on the Zoning Board. WOODBRIDGE - After serving for three decades under sevenmayors, three interim mayors, and reviewing and voting on approximately 10,000 applications, Robert T. Anderson said it was his time to step down from his seat on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. "I knew my time was up about a year ago," saidAnderson, 84. "My family at home …we're all getting older, and in addition to the four or five hours at the meetings that are twice amonth, we would spend between eight to 10 hours reviewing applications and visiting sites." Anderson's last day on the board was Dec. 31, 2007. "I can't say that every decision that I made was a right one, but I leave this board with no regrets … every decision I made, I was able to go home and laymy head on the pillow," he said. Anderson was appointed to the board in 1968 when Mayor Ralph P. Barone was in office. "I was involved in politics at the time, and when a member of the board moved away and his seat was up, I was asked if I wanted to come on board," said Anderson, who was at the time president of the Greater Colonia Democratic Club. The former boardmember said he couldn't specifically say there was just onememorable moment while sitting on the board. "There were so many memorable moments," he said. Anderson touched upon the Distrigas Pipeline Corp. application in 1973, which brought over 150 residents to the board meeting over several months. "We had to move those meetings to the Woodbridge High School because they got so big," he said. According to a 1973 newspaper clipping, which Anderson had saved, Distrigas applied for special building permits to build underground pipelines for the transmission of liquefied natural gas [LNG] and ametering station in Port Reading. Themetering station and pipelines were to receive LNG from Staten Island, N.Y., storage tanks, and a subsequent application to the proper agency would seek permits to install pipelines under the Arthur Kill to connect the two facilities. Anderson was chairman of the board at that time. Distrigas Corp., an importer of LNG from Algeria, intended at that time to sell its product to the Public Service Electric and Gas Co., the New Jersey Natural Gas Co. and the Elizabethtown Gas Co., connecting with their lines at the Distrigas boundary. A Public Utility Commission [PUC] decision was pending on whether or not Distrigas was in the jurisdiction of the commission. If the PUC approved the company's application for permits to construct the metering station and pipelines, it would remove the necessity for local permits completely. The likes of then-Middlesex County Sheriff Joseph De- Marino, who later became mayor, and then-Assemblyman John J. Fay were opposed to the application. The Planning Board and Township Council recommended that the Zoning Board deny the application, but the Zoning Board eventually approved it. Anderson said the biggest development inWoodbridge during his time on the board was the Woodbridge Centermall in 1970. "Those meetings went smoothly," he said. Anderson said that times have changed significantly since 1968. "From1968 to 1978, a lot of development was going on with gas stations and apartment houses," he said. "There was a lot of small single-family homes throughout the township and where I lived in Colonia, there was hardly anything developed on Inman Avenue at the time." Anderson said the best advice that he could give to the newmembers of the board is to just use the best judgment that they can. "Just read the case, look at the sites, hear all the evidence, and make sure that every decision that is made, you can go home and put your head down and sleep," he said. Anderson grew up in Jersey City, served inWorldWar II as a torpedoman in theU.S. Navy from1943 to 1946, andmoved into the Colonia section of the township in 1957with his wife, Marjorie. The Andersons have been married for 62 years and have a son, four daughters and 12 grandchildren. Anderson was a supervisor with Western Electric Co. in Kearney for 43 years before retiring in 1985. He is a thirddegree member of the Colonia Knights of Columbus, a fourth-degree member of the Iselin Knights of Columbus, a member of the Iselin American Legion Post 471, the Union County Senior Citizen LifeMember Club, and a member of the Western Electric Bell System Retirees and St. John Vianney Senior Citizen Club in Colonia. Anderson is also a promoter for laymen's retreats in Morristown and serves as an usher and Eucharistic minister at St. John Vianney Church in Colonia. "I am at the [St. John Vianney] church at 8:45 a.m. everymorning," saidAnderson, who has been a member since 1959 and became a Eucharistic minister 15 years ago. Though Anderson has enjoyed his time on the Zoning Board ofAdjustment, the former board member said he is also enjoying spending time with family, shopping and vacationing. "We went to the Poconos, and in March we are going to Florida," he said. "That's the one thing I don't have to worry about, because when I was on the board, our vacations were boxed in and I would have to worry about when I would have to come back for the meetings."