Still No Vote On Center Of Excellence Project, Drags To Nov. 18

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — After yet another three and a half hour meeting no vote was made by Bridgewater Planning Board on Tuesday on the hotly contested Center of Excellence project. The hearing will be carried onto Monday, Nov. 18.

The vote and the opportunity for residents to testify continues to be delayed due to the constant flow of residents who grill experts at the meetings for hours on end. Each expert will speak and testify for a matter of minutes yet questioning from residents will continue on for hours.

Some of the questions were called "irrelevant" as they had nothing to do with the application itself. At multiple times during the hearing Planning Board President Patricia Casamento had to ask residents to stay on topic and only question the experts on what they spoke about.

Michael Coakley who represents the project's applicant, CIP II/AR Bridgewater Holdings LLC, was visibly upset with the process and objected many times.

Environmental Study Results

Keith Savel a site remediation professional hired by the township spoke about issues of Benzene on the property. He noted that the groundwater investigation found that the contamination of Benzene is localized to one well in a 400 square-foot area.

That area as of last year has a level 206 parts per billion that appears in the ground water, that is down from 21,000 parts per billion which was initially reported in 2000. Pumping of water and an injection process caused the contamination to go down.

CIP II/AR Bridgewater Holdings LLC has submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection a plan to let the benzene degrade naturally, which is projected to take 26 years to fully go away. Additionally, sampling will be taken every other year to monitor it. The DEP has not approved the plan yet.

Savel noted the plan was acceptable since the migration of the contaminate is so slow that it is not a concern to spread into neighboring areas.

The other area of concern is a 241,000 of cubic yards of landfill on the property, which consists of soil mixed with construction debris. Sanofi got approved by the DEP in April to excavate the area, screen out the construction debris and then reuse the soil on the site. That would then close out the issue, Savel noted.

Township Planner Scarlett Doyle suggested that there be township employee at the scene when the soil is excavated.

Residents questioned Savel for hours but Casamento had to end the meeting at around 10:30 p.m. due to the hour of the night. Questioning of Savel will continue on Nov. 18.

Additionally Jay Troutman a traffic expert, will testify on the traffic impact on the area. Residents will have a chance to question Troutman as well.

As long as no other experts are called to testify, the public will 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.

Watch the entire meeting below:

The development was first proposed in January 2016 and has since received mixed reviews from residents and officials in town.

Concerns include traffic, overpopulating the school system, and strain on volunteer emergency services.

Residents opposed to the project have since hired an attorney to try and stop it. (See Related: Residents Hire Attorney To Fight Center Of Excellence Project)

The applicant has 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 development was first proposed in January 2016 and has since received mixed reviews from residents and officials in town.

• 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
• Related: No Vote On Center Of Excellence Project, Rescheduled To Oct. 28
• Related: Controversial Video Unveiled On Bridgewater's Rt. 202/206 Project

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