Traffic, Parking May Be Critical in Hotel Proposal

What may be the crucial  factors — traffic and parking — in determining the fate of a proposal to build a Hampton Inn hotel next to Red Lobster on Route 22 will be the subject of a Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting on Aug. 27.

”That’s going to be an interesting conversation,” board chairman William Vornehm said about the upcoming meeting. The chairman made the remark near the end of the first meeting on the plan to build the 135-room hotel on Tuesday night.

Susan Griffin, a partner in FSG Bridgewater Hotels, the group that wants to build the four-story hotel, said Bridgewater has a market for the hotel which will cater to traveling business people and weekend guests attending events like weddings and reunions in the area.

She said that 37 percent of the hotel rooms in the Bridgewater market are in extended stay hotels. Griffin added that many of the remaining hotel rooms in the market are “aging.”

”Your master plan said more hotel space is needed,” project planner Michael Tobia told the board.

The average stay at Hampton Inn is 1.5 to 1.8 nights, she said, with the busiest days being Monday through Wednesday, Griffin added.

The hotel will have an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center and a small bar in the lobby that will be open only to guests, she said. The bar is popular on nights when the weather is inclement, she said.

At another Hampton Inn the group owns in Westchester, she said it is “lucky” if the bar makes $5,000 a month.

The hotel will also have a common area where breakfast will be available, she said, but lunch and dinner will not be available.

She said the construction of the hotel would take a year and generate about 200 construction jobs. Once the hotel is open, there will be the equivalent of about 50 full-time employees, she added.

The hotel will have a total of 135 rooms, of which 28 would be suites.

The plan calls for 135 parking spaces. Griffin defended the number, saying that Hampton’s research has shown that a 1-to-1 ratio of parking spaces to rooms is adequate because many business people travel together but have separate rooms.

The township’s land use ordinance requires 179 spaces. If the board were to require more parking spaces, they could be placed on the eastern side of the property off the access road from Ronson Road, project engineer George Folk said.

Folk also said it would not be possible to have access from Red Lobster because of a wetlands area between the two properties.

”One hundred thirty-five spaces are more than adequate,” Tobia said, adding that planning experts have concluded in recent years that traditional parking requirements may have been excessive.

Tobia said the township could  impose a condition that Hampton add more parking if the number of spaces creates problems, he said.

The parking spaces, and the entrances to the hotel from both Route 22 and Ronson Road, will be the subject of the applicant’s traffic engineer at the Aug. 27 meeting.

One Foothill Road resident raised the question of whether left turns would be allowed out of the hotel onto Ronson Road, just south of where a traffic light is to be installed as part of the highway improvements in the Route 22-287 area. She said those turns could create a hazardous condition.

The project also requires a variance for floor-area ratio. If the amenities such as the pool and fitness center were eliminated, then the variance would not be needed, Tobia said.

He added that the plan calls for 44 percent lot coverage, while township regulations allow 60 percent, he said.

”We want to have the green space,” he said.
 
The 4.4-acre tract, owned by Kemper Realty, consists of three lots. On one lot near the intersection of Ronson and Foothill roads is a single-family house that will be demolished.

Red Lobster will separate the Hampton Inn from America’s Best Value Inn (the former Red Bull Inn) which is undergoing renovations. Across the highway, on the eastbound lanes of Route 22, is a Days Inn.