Clark Residents Voice Concerns About Proposal for New Town Center on Gypsum Site

The Clark Planning Board met Thursday night to further discuss a planning report that suggested the town should rezone the 28-acre former U.S. Gypsum paper manufacturing plant on Raritan Road to encourage a new commercial town center.

The board originally heard the proposal in February and will present it to the public in a meeting at 7:30 p.m. on March 19 in the Arthur L. Johnson auditorium.

The plan, prepared by Planner Kevin O'Brien of Shamrock Enterprises and Town Engineer Richard O'Connor, suggests a new "Limited Commercial Industrial" district for the Gypsum property (which is currently zoned for industrial use) and the ShopRite side of Central Avenue from Raritan Road to the Parkway circle. The vision presented in the plan is for a new town center – an environmentally friendly commercial center with retail and office space in "a park like setting with tree-lined streets" and with "a central architectural focus such as a fountain, plaza, clock tower or landscaped boulevard."

At Thursday's meeting, O'Brien discussed how the zone will limit big box stores on the property.

"The LCI is going to allow most uses that are allowed in the current Commercial Industrial zone, but in addition, the plan calls for limiting the size of stores and specifically prohibiting big box stores, so that one of the larger developments like we have on Route 1 would not be possible here," said O'Brien. "Most big box stores are in the vicinity of 100,000 square feet and up. Right now, the draft ordinance thinking is something along the lines of one larger store no bigger than 80 square feet, and everything else about half that size."

Though the board did not discuss much more about the plan at Thursday's workshop meeting, about 40 residents attended and several voiced concerns about the proposal. Board Attorney Michael Cresitello emphasized that Thursday's meeting was simply a workshop meeting.

"This is not the formal full public hearing," said Cresitello. "We are limiting public comment to five minutes each. We will be having a public hearing on March 19. That is when you will have the ability to get up and offer final comments and full comments on what will then be the final version of the plan."

The board's discussions are to define the zoning on the property, but the specific stores and plan will be proposed by a developer who wants to purchase it. Mayor Bonaccorso has previously stated that at least one developer is already interested in submitting a plan.

Resident Marianne Disporto asked what types of store might fall under 80,000 square feet, asking whether Kohl's or even another supermarket would be possible on the property.

O'Brien said Kohl's stores are typically under 80,000 square feet, and so it would meet the parameters for the larger store space. O'Brien answered that another supermarket would be possible on the property if it met the square footage requirements, but felt that it would be unlikely that a supermarket choose this location. O'Brien offered that between now and next meeting he would try to come up with some concrete examples for Disporto.

Resident Debra McLeester asked if the rezoning would have any effect on Clark's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations.

"At this point no," answered O'Brien. "COAH is not functioning at moment, so until we get further guidelines from them, there is no obligation."

Several residents voiced concerns about more traffic in the already high traffic intersections bordering the property. Cresitello responded explaining that once a developer submits a specific plan, he or she will have to do several traffic studies to make sure any adverse affects are discussed and ameliorated.

"Yes, a traffic impact study will be done once a proposal is in," argued back resident Nancy Sheridan, "but you don’t even get to that point unless you rezone it. Raritan Road has already been widened I don’t know how many times, and some people on Raritan lost their entire easement. They can't even park in front of their house. ... There are some implications to this. This is going to be a big impact. You have to think of what is the best for this town, not let's just approve this. They aren’t going to be able to put this plan in unless you rezone it."

The most outspoken resident during the meeting was Bill Caruso, a former Clark councilman and president of Clark Senior Housing, who helped lead the fight to get approval for the town's age-restricted housing project currently being built on Terminal Avenue.

Caruso said he works in the commercial real estate business, is working on a shopping center in Hillside, and feels the town is "putting the cart before the horse." Caruso also took issue with Clark funding the Master Plan reexamination with taxpayer money.

"You don’t want to identify who prospective buyer is, so you have no way of knowing what he wants to do there," said Caruso. "We’re rezoning the biggest piece of land in Clark. We have to do it wisely. ... I’m genuinely concerned because the quality of life in Clark could be destroyed by this. Remember when a developer comes in from out of town, he could care less about quality of life in Clark – he’s here to make money."

Caruso said he offered to go on TV36 and discuss the proposal with the mayor, but the mayor turned him down.

Mayor Bonaccorso told Patch he did not turn Caruso down; rather, he simply did not respond to his request.

The next meeting on the rezoning will take place at 7:30 p.m. on March 19 in the Arthur L. Johnson auditorium.

Read more:

Mayor Bonaccorso Asks: What Do Residents Want Built at Gypsum Property?

What Should Take the U.S. Gypsum Factory's Place in Clark?

What do you think of the plan for a new town center? Tell us in the comments.

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