Basking Ridge's Fellowship Village Expands To Add Employee Quarters

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Fellowship Senior Living is expanding once more. The Bernards Township Planning Board approved an application for the retirement community to build a new two-story building that would serve as employee quarters.

Fellowship Village Inc. recently acquired the land at 33 & 55 Allen Road, which is next to the existing senior living campus. A single family has already been demolished by Fellowship Village and the application was looking to replace it with employee living quarters, said Jennifer Philips Smith, an attorney representing the applicant, at the Tuesday night Planning Board meeting.

The employee quarters will be designed to look like a single-family home that measures 400 square feet in a 2 story building.

"From the outside, it will look very much like a single-family home but from the inside, it will be used to house employees that will come to work at Fellowship Village," said Philips Smith.

Philips Smith noted that having on-site employee housing will help the retirement community attract the "best" employees.

The applicant was initially asking for a waiver for the replacement of trees but withdrew that at the Tuesday meeting.

"Any tree that is taken down, we will find a place within the campus to replace the trees," said Philips Smith.

A neighbor, Ellen Pinson, spoke at the meeting asking for Fellowship Village to also build a fence between her property and theirs. That stipulation was not accepted by the Board or applicant.

The Bernards Township Planning Board unanimously approved the application.

Previously in 2021 Fellowship Village got approval from the Board to build a two-floor building to suit the new fitness center and salon, relocating their current salon and massage services to the new location. Fellowship Village also added outdoor amenities such as trails, a small dog park and courts for pickleball, bocce ball and shuffleboard. Read More: Basking Ridge Senior Community Set For New Fitness Center, Salon

Watch the full meeting below:

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.