Apartments Eyed For Exit 10

By Andrew Gorosko

A New Jersey development company is seeking information from the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) on the feasibility of constructing a 120-unit luxury rental apartment complex on the west side of Edmond Road, on a wet parcel known as the Edwards property near Exit 10 on I-84.

Engineer Mark Lancor, of Dymar Engineering of Monroe, and attorney William Denlinger, both representing Princewood Properties, LLC, of Princeton, NJ, broached the apartment development topic with WPCA members at a March 23 session. Princewood Properties is under contract to purchase the 27-acre property.

Such a development project would require multiple approvals from town land use agencies.

Jeffrey Albert, managing member of Princewood Properties, said March 29, “It’s very, very early on… We are in the investigation period right now.” The company is reviewing the property to learn its characteristics, he said.

Developing the site would require a change of zone, he said. “We are just now formulating a proposal… We’re now just working on our proposal.” It is yet unclear if an apartment complex would contain an “affordable housing” component, he said.  

Mr Albert said the firm hopes to present basic plans for a complex within several weeks.

Mr Lancor said the project would require rezoning the site from its current industrial zoning to allow apartment development. The property lies along the stretch of Edmond Road extending from the Shell gas station at the corner of Edmond Road and Church Hill Road, to the Rand-Whitney cardboard box factory on the corner of Edmond Road and Schoolhouse Hill Road. The property is relatively deeper nearer the factory.

Mr Lancor estimated that 180 people would live in 120 apartments, and that such a complex would require 18,000 gallons of daily sewage treatment capacity in the municipal sewer system.

Mr Lancor explained to WPCA members that the availability of sewer service would be a key aspect of the project, adding that unless the development firm is allocated sufficient sewage treatment capacity by the WPCA, it probably would not proceed with the project.

WPCA Chairman Richard Zang explained that the municipal sewer system was designed with current town zoning in mind.

Mr Zang explained the developer could submit a letter to the WPCA formally seeking to have the site included within the town sewer district for the purpose of sewer connections. The WPCA has a development framework with which it decides how to allocate the town’s limited remaining sewage treatment capacity at the joint state-town sewage treatment plant on Commerce Road, he said.

Mr Zang said the developer need not submit detailed construction plans to be considered for sewer connections.

Mr Zang said it remains unclear if the town would acquire additional sewage treatment capacity at the sewage plant if the town buys the core campus of Fairfield Hills from the state. The town currently owns about one-third of the 1 million gallons of daily treatment capacity at the sewage plant. The state owns the remainder.

 Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said March 28 that a portion of the Edwards property is in the town sewer district, but the bulk of it is not.

“It [proposal] really is very preliminary. If they’re [developers] going to go forward with the project, they have a lot of work to do,” Mr Hurley said. “We have not seen a full proposal from them,” he added.

Mr Lancor said he would return to the WPCA with plans for the project.