By Sunayana Prabhu
SHREWSBURY – The developer made an enticing offer, but residents aren’t biting.
Martelli Development Group’s application returned to the land use board agenda May 3, with an offering to dedicate an acre of the property to a potential park. But seniors from an adjacent active adult community continue to resist the developer’s plan to build an office building on a residential property in the borough’s historic district.
According to the two-part application, Martelli plans to renovate the existing residential dwelling into a commercial office which requires a variance. The property, located at 942 Broad St., is locally referred to as the Judd property. Martelli has a purchase contract with the current property owner Michael Lynn.
The 3.44-acre parcel is heavily wooded, sits next to Mason Fields and abuts the Shrewsbury Municipal Complex and the Thornbrooke community. It is in close proximity to the historic four-way intersection at Broad Street and Sycamore Avenue which is dotted with landmarks like Christ Episcopal Church, the Quaker Meeting House, the Allen House and other Victorian homes. The speed limit on this stretch of Route 35 was recently reduced to 35 mph from 40.
Michael James Monroe, the architect contracted by the developer, displayed renderings of the proposed building, refined to give the board a better framework for deciding for or against the use variance.
The sketch shown at a previous meeting was an authentic rendering perspective view whereas the new drawing showed the exact scale of the building’s pitch and heights. “The goal was to make it look like it’s an adaptive reuse of the existing building that might have been there,” Monroe said. “It looks like a lot of the older builds in town.”
Thornbrooke resident Joe Burns said the new rendering looked better than the ones presented at previous meetings but still just “makes a silk purse out of sow’s ear.”
“That building has no redeeming qualities. Zero. So, I’m covering it up and making it better,” Monroe said, adding that the “goal is to keep the existing footprint.” A substantial part of the walls and windows will be repaired and repainted, he said, “without tearing it down to the deck.”
Joann Mazzucca of Glorney Street was worried about the impact of changing a property in the historic district from residential to commercial. “It is going to open a can of worms,” she said.
Monroe assured that the developer was “sensitive to that,” saying he designed the building with “residential character.”
In order to ensure that roadways in the surrounding area can accommodate additional traffic projected by a commercial site, traffic engineer Justin Taylor, contracted by Martelli, presented testimony. Taylor said his responsibility as part of the project was to review the traffic impact “for the 5,000-square-foot office building that’s proposed on the site.”
According to data collected, the property will produce seven trips each during the morning and evening commuting hours, Taylor said. He further added that a variance will be required to accommodate the parking requirement of 25 parking spaces.
The borough’s zoning officer David Cranmer asked Taylor if he had “analyzed crash data” as part of his study of the area. Taylor said the data he pulled from the last three years indicated there were “five crashes along this section of Route 35.”
Resident Mike Nugent complained that the traffic study did not include Thornbrooke Drive, a short distance from the driveway entrance to the property in question. But Taylor explained that the NJDOT data determined the traffic generated “is not going to have any significant impact on the adjacent intersection.”
According to Taylor, wetlands and environmental constraints prohibit the site’s driveway from being located opposite Silverbrook Road. Several residents were skeptical about the safety of a left turn from the site onto Route 35, a four-lane roadway, and the safety of turning left into the site from Route 35. Taylor noted that those turns would be legal.
A special meeting has been scheduled by the land use board for June 29 when additional testimony will be presented by Martelli’s professional planner.
The article originally appeared in the May 11 – 17, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
