HOWELL – An applicant is asking the Planning Board for permission to demolish a Gulf gas station and to construct a Chase Bank branch at the corner of Route 9 North and Aldrich Road in Howell.
The applicant, JP Morgan Chase Bank NA, and the owner, PMG New Jersey LLC, are seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval to remove all of the existing site improvements and to construct a one-story bank with drive-up ATM service and parking for 23 vehicles.
Attorney Jennifer Porter represented the applicant at the board’s Sept. 5 meeting. She said the applicant is proposing to construct a 3,028-square-foot building with two drive-up lanes.
Porter said the applicant is seeking to maintain the existing lot area of 30,854 square feet as a pre-existing non-conformity of the site.
“We believe we have come up with a development project that works well with this site, within the confines and constraints of this site,” she said, adding that Chase Bank would lease the site from PMG New Jersey.
Porter said the landlord would be entirely responsible for any and all environmental remediation work that may be required in regard to removing gas tanks and other issues at the location.
Engineer and project manager Martin Swaggard described the current condition of the site and noted there are two points of access from Route 9 and two points of access from Aldrich Road. He said the site as it exists has about 90 percent impervious coverage.
“The site is very sparsely landscaped. We are proposing (impervious) coverage of 78% with landscaping. The municipal code (permits) 70% impervious coverage; we had some difficulty meeting that requirement just because of the drive aisles and all of the other parking and features that are required in trying to accommodate emergency vehicle circulation, but we are improving the current (impervious coverage) situation by 12%,” Swaggard said.
“Our improvements include a 3,028-square-foot Chase Bank with a drive-up ATM on the south side of the building, as well as a bypass lane around that (drive-up lane).
“We are reducing the four existing driveways (on Route 9 and Aldrich Road) to two driveways. We are proposing a right in, right out only driveway from Route 9 North.
“The driveway from Aldrich Road would permit left and right turns in, but only right turns out. We are not permitting left turns onto Aldrich Road from that driveway.
“By virtue of all the landscaping we are proposing, our site (would) result in a decrease in storm water rate and volume,” Swaggard said.
The applicant is proposing to improve the existing sidewalks around the site.
The board’s chairman, Robert Nash, said he wanted clarification about the environmental cleanup of the property.
“So we fully understand, the existing owner is responsible for the environmental cleanup, the removal of the gas (tanks) and the remediation. How do we get there?” Nash said.
The board’s attorney, Ron Cucchiaro, said there are many aspects to the environmental cleanup issue, but he said all the board members need to confirm is that the applicant does not anticipate there would be anything in the environmental cleanup that would modify the location of any structures.
Swaggard said that is the applicant’s understanding of the matter.
The application for the Chase Bank was carried to the board’s Oct. 17 meeting.
