By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – A new medical facility is expected to open at 315 W. Main St. (Route 537) in Freehold Township after Meridian Health renovates a vacant children’s daycare center.
Following testimony from professionals representing Meridian Health on July 7, members of the Planning Board directed their attorney, Frank Accisano, to prepare a positive resolution for the healthcare company’s plan to provide pediatric care and urgent medical care at the building at the corner of Castronova Way. The resolution will be voted on at a future meeting of the board.
Meridian Health was represented by attorney John Sarto, of the firm Giordano, Halleran and Ciesla. Testimony on behalf of the applicant, Meridian Health Realty Corp., was presented by engineer Matthew Robinson, of MidAtlantic Engineering Partners, and planner Barbara Ehlen, of Beacon Planning.
Robinson testified that the existing site is 1.5 acres in a professional zone where 2 acres is required. A medical facility is a permitted use in the zone. Board members granted a variance for the undersized lot.
Right and left turns in to the medical facility will be permitted from Route 537. Only right turns out will be permitted on Route 537. All turning movements will be permitted from Castronova Way, according to Robinson.
The building will have 3,700 square feet designated as urgent care space, 4,400 square feet designated as pediatric care space and 683 square feet designated as common space (i.e., a lunchroom).
Robinson said a space in the parking lot will be designated for delivery vehicles after board members indicated they did not want delivery vehicles, primarily vans, parking in the vehicle circulation lane. Large trucks are not expected to make deliveries to the building, according to Robinson.
During her testimony, Ehlen described how the addition of parking spaces at the site will create additional impervious surface and require a variance. The board’s planner, Paul Phillips, and the board members did not object to 60 percent impervious surface coverage where the maximum permitted coverage is 50 percent.
Neither Phillips nor the board members objected to the applicant’s request for a variance for a 1.5-acre property where 2 acres is required. The Meridian property borders an office building at 303 W. Main St.
Two Freehold Township residents commented on the Meridian application.
Jim Berenson expressed concern about the number of people who will be coming to the site seeking urgent care and pediatric care. He noted that at another medical building in town, Patriots Park on Schanck Road, a lack of spaces in the parking lot causes people to park along Schanck Road. He suggested that parking may be an issue on Castronova Way if the parking at the Meridian facility turns out not to be sufficient.
Bill Mehr, an attorney who was at the meeting representing a client on another matter before the board, spoke as a resident on the Meridian application.
Mehr took issue with Meridian’s use of its name and logo on every sign that was proposed for the site, including the entrance sign and the exit sign at two driveways. The front of the site will have a sign with the Meridian name and logo.
Robinson said the Meridian name and logo is important on the entrance and exit signs.
After a discussion among board Chairman Rich Gatto, Sarto, Robinson and Mehr, the applicant agreed to remove the Meridian name and logo from the driveway signs and the board members agreed to allow the Meridian name and logo to remain on all of the other signs at the building. The applicant will not have to go before the township’s sign committee to present its plan for the signs.
The parties agreed that each driveway sign will include three components. One sign will say “Urgent Care,” “Pediatrics” and “Enter Only.” The second sign will say “Urgent Care,” “Pediatrics” and “Exit Only.”
