No Vote On Center Of Excellence Project, Rescheduled To Oct. 28

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — No vote or decision was made by the Bridgewater Planning Board on the Center of Excellence project following a heated three and a half hours of testimony on Monday night. The packed meeting ended around 10:20 p.m. with more testimony and comments to be carried onto Oct. 28 and possibly Oct. 29 as well.

The hotly contested topic regarding the now-vacant 100-plus acre Sanofi-Aventis property on Route 202/206 packed the municipal courtroom leaving standing room only with locals wearing red Preserve Bridgewater T-shirts. Due to the amount of turnout overflow residents went into a neighboring room to watch the meeting on TVs.

The applicant, CIP II/AR Bridgewater Holdings LLC, presented four of five witnesses to speak on a parking variance where they wanted to reduce the amount of parking needed from 2,183 as required by the town to 1,168 for the research and development zone of the property in the back including businesses such as Nestle.

The front portion or the retail and commercial zone is projected to encompass plans of building a hotel, supermarket, fitness/wellness center, restaurants with outdoor dining, around 400 luxury apartment units and boutiques. This has been called one of the largest developments in township's history since the Bridgewater Commons mall.

The experts claimed that following multiple studies done in June and July the number of spots the town required was not needed.

Residents grilled each expert that spoke questioning the necessity to reduce the number of spots pointing to worries that nearby neighborhoods would then be subject to overflow parking. Other residents pointed to wetland areas that they feared may be built upon in the future to accommodate parking needs.

Watch the first half of the meeting below:

One more expert is set to speak regarding the parking issue on Oct. 28. The public will then be able to question the expert.

As long as CIP II/AR Bridgewater Holdings does not call upon anymore experts to speak, the public will then be able to voice their opinion on the entire project including the front and back portions of the property, before the planning board makes a final vote.

"Overall this project is too large in scope and the developer has been unable to meet promises made to improve traffic," said Bridgewater Council President Matthew Moench, who is also running for mayor on the republican ticket.

Depending on how long public comments last a final vote is expected to be made on Oct. 28 or 29. The Oct. 28 Planning Board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Bridgewater Municipal Courtroom at 100 Commons Way.

• See Related: Largest Development in Bridgewater's History Proposed
• Related: Bridgewater Approves Plan For Possibly Largest Redevelopment Plan in Township's History
• Related: Bridgewater Officials Argue Over Center Of Excellence Project

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