The revised site plan for the blighted property behind the Ellsworth Center is still not satisfactory to members of the Site Plan Review Advisory Board. Meeting with SPRAB for the fifth time on May 11, property owner Jacinto Rodrigues and representatives for his company, Pereira Investment Corporation, were at loggerheads with SPRAB over the amount of increased commercial space being proposed.
Members of SPRAB also were concerned that parking and firefighter access are too constrained under the proposed expansions. Landscaping issues, particularly around the water detention basin, were also raised.
Rodrigues’ attorney, Jeffrey Baron, presented the plan. He took note of SPRAB’s various concerns and referred to the proposed plan’s adherence to ordinance requirements, saying “we’ll deal with it as a legal issue.”
Baron also reiterated that his client does not want to reduce commercial space.
According to land use manager Sam Surtees, the floor area ratio in Rodrigues’ plan exceeds the ratio allowed under the township’s zoning ordinances. All township property has a floor area ratio it must conform to, which is used as a zoning tool to establish development limits.
Last year the approved mixed-use improvements for the adjacent Ellsworth Center received a D-4 variance, which allowed the project to exceed its floor area ratio. Also approved by the Zoning Board was a D-4 variance, which permits the conversion of two residential lots into a water detention basin and parking space. According to Surtees, after including these two properties, which will have no buildings, the Ellsworth project floor area ratio is well within the zoning ordinance. Both Rodrigues’ property and the Ellsworth Center are part of the redevelopment area.
However, it is unlikely that Rodrigues can add any acreage to his property, which can only be accessed via an easement through the Ellsworth Center. The site backs onto the railroad and it is also bordered by preserved open space. Rodrigues could purchase land from Shawn Ellsworth, the developer of the Ellsworth Center, though that scenario is unlikely after he has filed two lawsuits challenging the township’s Ellsworth Center zoning approval. The township won both suits but Rodrigues is appealing the rulings.
Surtees says the township is encouraging Rodrigues to alter his site plan so that the floor area ratio conforms with zoning ordinances.
“If you go before the zoning board for a variance, you are asking for something you don’t have a right to,” Surtees says. “If you make it a conforming plan and you go before the Planning Board, it is hard for the Planning Board to reject it because it is in accordance with the master plan. I’m hopeful they got the message.”
#b#Howard Hughes update.#/b# A new team is heading the development of the 658-acre Howard Hughes property, located at the former American Cyanamid site between Clarksville Route and Route 1. Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and township staff had a short meeting with senior executive vice president Chris Curry and vice president Adam Meister.
“They introduced themselves at the meeting and they said they will continue the dialogue,” Hsueh says. “I continued to emphasize the importance of the township’s request for a concept plan before the Planning Board as well as public discussion. At this point it is still wait and see.”
Curry, who has been involved with Howard Hughes’ South Street Seaport project in Manhattan, will oversee the project. Hsueh says that company representatives did not discuss specifics at the meeting.
