Residents Not Happy With Proposed Quarry Plan In Basking Ridge

BASKING RIDGE, NJ —Residents shared their opinions and concerns over the draft Quarry Redevelopment Concept Plan that was unveiled on Tuesday night.

The Bernards Township Committee meeting lasted close to three hours as 28 residents took to the microphone, the majority of whom were against the proposed plan.

“I moved to town four years ago from Berkeley Heights looking for a town that met our need as parents and to grow old here,” said one resident. “This is concerning. This is not where I want to live, this is not the town I bought into.”

Dave Banner, Bernards Township Planning Board planner, explained at length what the draft plan entails for the property located off Stonehouse Road.

The area would be divided into four districts — Agritourism and Recreation District, Cottage Residential District, Mixed Residential District and Mixed Use District.

The Agritourism and Recreation District would include an organic farm and trails along with a 15,000-square-foot restaurant overlooking the lake.

The Cottage Residential District will include 28 units of townhouses and 47 single-family detached dwellings.

The Mixed Residential District will include 30 units of flats and 45 units of townhouses.

Lastly, the Mixed Use District will include a hotel/rental suite that will have between 100 to 250 sleeping rooms/suites, 60,000 square feet of office space, 140,000 square feet of retail space, 50 units of apartments and 35 units of affordable apartments.

Additionally, along the lake’s water edge there is a proposed boardwalk with amphitheater for the public to use for community events.

(Rendering of draft Quarry Redevelopment Concept Plan)

Mayor Carolyn Gaziano was in favor of this draft proposal that took about two years to create. She noted that about 105 to 128 students were expected to be added to the school system as a result but the town was also looking to get $2.8 million net revenue as well.

She also noted that with this plan the lake would be open to the public for use rather than if just private homes were built.

“That is a big benefit to me,” Graziano said. “There will be access to walking, biking trails, a hotel. This will bring viability to the community... and brings a lot of revenue to the town, because of the hotel tax.”

Graziano also noted the project would offer advantages to create housing for millenials and empty nesters, that don’t have any right now.

However, most of the residents that shared their opinions on the plan were not as enthusiastic. Many shared concerns on the environmental contamination in the soil and lake water, increased traffic, more students entering the school system, too much retail and the change in character of the community.

“This is a beautiful plan but it just doesn’t belong here,” said Paul Hubbard. “This is not Morristown.”

“We wanted to escape high density and lots of traffic so we moved here,” said John Farro. “This is a quality of life issue for us. We came here and wanted it to stay the way it is now or close to this, but not this.”

“We are getting comments tonight from 30- to 70-, 80-year-olds and we are all saying the same thing,” said Sharon Vopel. “Please consider what we are saying.”

There were a few residents in favor of the plan and would love the idea of a craft brewery to be added.

“I think towns need to stay competitive, other towns such as Westfield are making advancements,” said Heather Galliger. “My biggest fear is if this plan doesn’t happen we would have no public access to the lake or amenities and the community would be negatively impacted.”

Overall committee members thanked the community for their input and stressed that this was just the first draft of the plan and they will be continuing to collect input from the community to shape a plan.

The next committee meeting is set for Nov. 13 where the quarry plan may or may not be open to public comment again.

(Rendering of draft Quarry Redevelopment Concept Plan via bernards.org)

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