Business & Finance
Photo Credit: Audrey Blumberg
By Barbra Bateman Doyle
Published September 30, 2024 at 9:30 AM
WHITEHOUSE STATION – More than three dozen members of the public came before the Readington planning board, most of them insisting the township’s rural character be protected in any efforts to rezone along Route 22.
The members of the board seemed to hear the residents loud and clear during the hour-and-a-half-long session.
“Usually we’re lucky if we get two people,” deputy chair Christopher John told the 42 people in the gallery.
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The process of rezoning began prior to 2023 as a result of requests from land owners and those who would like to locate businesses on the state highway as it runs through the township, said Deputy Mayor Vincent Panico.
The proposal being considered by the township which would change the zoning map to consolidate all the land along the state highway through Readington into two zones – highway commercial and village highway commercial – is what drew the interest. Many of those in attendance were residents of Lake Cushetunk Woods who said they believe they and their lake might be most directly affected by any changes.
A plan for general rezoning along Route 22 had been in the works as far back as 2020, the board’s land use coordinator and zoning officer Christina Schwartz told the gallery and board members. She said a lot of the buildings that were vacant when she began working for Readington Township back in 2016 are still vacant today, and emphasized the changes were developed in response to requests by existing business owners and land owners as well as potential Readington business owners and commercial tenants considering relocating to the area.
“We got a lot of the same requests over and over,” Schwartz said.
The board heard very similar requests from nearly all of the 10 people who spoke to keep commercial zoning out of the area west of Van Horne Road – and that message was reinforced by repeated loud and sustained applause by the crowd.
Kate Deluca, a Cushetunk Woods resident, told the board she’s concerned redevelopment may exacerbate flooding concerns in the area. She joined with more than a half dozen of her neighbors in raising the possibility that the rezoning would increase traffic, decrease public safety – especially if drive-thrus are permitted – and fundamentally change the character and look of the community.
John Lanose, also of Lake Cushetunk Woods, cautioned that “once that door (to commercial rezoning) is opened, it can’t be closed.”
He and others from that development said they accept the fact that owners of distressed or vacant properties need relief, but they requested the board not recommend commercial zoning all along the westernmost stretch of Route 22 in the township.
“This is a town where I was prepared to retire in, but if the zoning goes through I will not be staying,” he told the board.
Resident Baljinder Singh, who told the board he owns three properties along that stretch, said it is a burden for business owners to keep up with their property taxes when their land or businesses are lying vacant or underused because of zoning restrictions.
Even before residents began speaking, members of the planning board expressed willingness to hear them out and, in most cases, openness to what they had to say, or even outright skepticism of some of the proposed changes. They pointed out the planning board does not have the final say on zoning changes, but could only give a recommendation to the township committee.
Lanose said he looks forward to crossing Van Horne Road when coming west on Route 22 from Branchburg or points further east.
“It’s the part where, if I drive from New York all the way out here on 22, and I take that road, it’s the first time it opens up,” he said, to loud applause.
Deputy mayor and planning board member Vincent Panico said there are properties west of Van Horne Road that also need the township’s attention, citing a stretch that includes Power Place, Salem Square, the Salem Industrial Park, Hunterdon Mill and the former Spinning Wheel Diner. He said he believes it’s crucial to keep commercial and industrial occupancy rates high so those property owners don’t wind up coming to the township with a request to tear their buildings down in order to build large housing complexes.
Mayor Adam Mueller said he has received “countless calls from business owners” looking for relief through rezoning, including a call as recently as two weeks ago from one in particular “begging” that the rezoning be completed.
Villa closed the largely cordial if impassioned session with an open-ended statement.
“Thank you again, members of the public, for giving us your comments, I only wish we had done this sooner,” he said.
The planning board is next scheduled to meet on Oct. 15.
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