Council to vote tonight on zoning changes

The Township Council is expected to hold a public hearing and final vote on a proposed ordinance amending requirements for the Planned Commercial Economic Development (PCED) Zone at its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 8.

Ron Day, vice chairman of the Planning Board, presented the proposed ordinance at the council’s meeting June 27.

The PCED Zone was created in 2018 and there has been significant development since then, including North Village, Wilson Drive and Gail Court, he said.

“We’re trying to right-size the existing uses and existing standards with what we know today” as well as boost environmental protections.

The PCED Zone is slightly less than 50 acres and includes a big field across from the ShopRite; the field has wetlands and required setbacks. The zone, west of Route 15, also includes a wellhead property where a road could be added, Day said.

Among the proposed zone changes in the ordinance:

• Limiting the total size of new buildings to 25,000 square feet, or to a septic system that could handle up to 2,000 gallons of waste, rather than the 40,000 square feet permitted now.

• Reducing the impervious coverage to 30 percent from 40 percent.

• Increasing the rear setback to 300 feet from 50 feet for greater protection of the wetlands in the back of the properties.

• Permitting retail pharmacies and 24-hour emergency care businesses in the zone. Hotels/motor inns/conference centers would not be allowed.

• Changing to conditional uses from permitted uses drive-thrus, churches and driving ranges. Churches are required to have a larger road frontage. Drive-thrus must meet specific parking and maintenance requirements and must have room for 12 cars to line up at the pick-up window.

• Requiring a 50-foot setback from wellheads.

• Limiting warehouses in the zone to three dock doors.

• Requiring environmental and traffic studies and community impact statements for a development of more than 20 acres.

• Prohibiting underground and under-building parking.

• Changing signs from 14 feet high to monument signs no taller than eight feet.

• Prohibiting animal testing.

Day pointed out that most of the nearby buildings are 25,000 square feet or less. “I think that the town has learned to live with that size building.”

He noted that the Highlands Coalition recently said impervious coverage was the biggest factor in the degradation of water quality.

Hotels/motor inns/conference centers might work better in zones that are less environmentally sensitive, he said.

Day suggested some issues to consider in an update of the township’s master plan. They include reviewing the percentage of impervious coverage permitted; re-evaluating the use of drive-thrus, warehouses and light industrial businesses; and looking at ways to encourage, maintain and increase agricultural uses.