Route 22 Corridor Master Plan Changes Approved

Despite an opposing vote on one of the six ordinances presented to the council concerning master plan changes, all were passed Monday night to make changes based on bringing the plan into conformance with a re-examination plan recently adopted by the Bridgewater Township Planning Board.

A vote on the ordinances had been expected at a September council meeting, but was postponed because the planning board had not yet reviewed them. At the Sept. 27 planning board meeting, they were all approved.

Council President Matthew Moench was the lone vote Monday against an ordinance that requires parking garages to have screening to hide the vehicles from view.

"For the record, I am voting 'no' on that one because of the screening in the parking dicussions," he said.

This had been the most contentious issue when the ordinances were first introduced in August. Councilman Allen Kurdyla had said he believed there was a bigger problem with shielding the vehicles than with leaving the garages open, and voted against the introduction.

Bridgewater Township Planner Scarlett Doyle has said that the purpose of the ordinance is to make garages more aesthetically pleasing by hiding the vehicles from view, while also creating banked parking in case additional spaces are needed at businesses.

But Kurdyla voted for the ordinance Monday, and Moench was the only dissenting vote. All other ordinances were passed unanimously.

"These are the last items for the Route 22 reorganization," Moench said.

The township made an amendment to the master plan concerning economic development and changes necessary, which was then approved by the planning board in April. This was done after a previous re-examination of the master plan in 2005 that set goals concerning economic development in the Route 22 corridor.

The basic goals of the amendments are to protect quality of life while raising tax rateables, and enabling flexibility in development and offering building design guidelines.

Another ordinance approved discusses the amount of impervious coverage allowed in relation to business sizes, and changes the standard from the original intent that the floor area ratio of an office building can be increased by an amount directly proportional to the decrease in the amount of impervious coverage on the lot.

Through this ordinance, a developer can have a 1-percent addition in building size for a 4-percent reduction in impervious land.

Some of the ordinances simply change wording in the master plan, while still others concern car dealerships and the rights to expand or rebuild them.

The final one changes clauses calling for a maximum lot area of 4 acres for business uses, and a maximum office floor area of 50,000-square feet, while it also adds permitted uses to the zone on the Route 22 corridor.