Debate on Aquatics Center at Tonight's Council Meeting

If past planning and zoning board meetings in Warren are any indication, Berkeley Heights residents opposed to the construction of a new Berkeley Aquatic Center facility on the border of Berkeley Heights and Warren, will arrive tonight to the Berkeley Heights Town Council meeting ready to voice their opposition to the proposed center's contruction off Hillcrest Avenue. 

Berkeley Heights Mayor Joe Bruno has said that he will host the meeting in a diplomatic manner, but knowing the emotion involved, is also ready to enforce the diplomacy he has come to expect as mayor.

“It will be an interesting meeting,” Bruno said by phone recently. “Hopefully, it’s going to be a respectful meeting or I will call it. We will be there to hear both sides and give people ample time to respond. I have no trouble calling for an adjournment if I have to.”

The anticipated fight is not one between two municipalities but a community against one of its own. Jim Wood, the owner of the Berkeley Aquatic Center thought he had arrived at the perfect location for a new 51,000-square foot facility centrally located near major highways and within close proximity of his existing facility off Springfield Avenue in Berkeley Heights.

The proposed facility, however, is located within the township of Warren, which requires zoning approval from the municipality. Warren township’s planner, John Chadwick, determined that the center's use as a swimming facility is a conditionally permitted use of the site.

That decision was appealed by a the grassroots citizens organization “Stop the BAC” to derail the application, but at Warren's Aug. 1 zoning board meeting, Chadwick said, “I haven’t changed my mind.”

The next step for Wood and the Berkeley Aquatic Center is to gain approval from Berkeley Heights Township on use of its sewage line that will support the center and will appear before the Berkeley Heights Town Council tonight, Dec. 6.

“Warren’s Sewerage Authority did not approve the sewage application at its most recent meeting, apparently in the absence of Berkeley Heights’ approval,” said Jonathan Wishnia, one of the members of the Stop the BAC.

There is a sewerage agreement between Warren and Berkeley Heights Townships that relates solely to residential use.

“The fundamental problem for me is that the agreement that we have with Warren is for residential and this is clearly not residential so I don’t want to open a Pandora’s box by saying okay to this in front of other industrials that want to do the same,” Bruno said of his own opinion.

What if the Berkeley Heights Council does not approve the sewerage tap?

“I’m sure they’re going to lawyer up and if we rule against the Stop the BAC and the BAC would likely do the same,” Bruno said, adding, “we just want to do what’s right.”

Doing what’s right for Berkeley Heights takes into consideration a traffic impact study that the township conducted last summer that revealed that cars that passed along Emerson Lane traveled an average of 37 miles per hour in a 25 speed zone even as they entered Hillcrest Avenue from the road that would run alongside the proposed BAC. Many residents who oppose the center note the existing hazardous conditions on Hillcrest Avenue that includes access to Route 78. 

Bruno said he realized that if the application is not approved the town would miss out on “a lot of ratables,” which could have an impact to the community. If Wood’s application for a new facility was denied, Bruno anticipates that he might sell the land, which could then be developed for new homes, thereby saving ratables. 

It all remains to be seen.

“I can’t speak for the council but from what I know they’re wide open on this issue,” Bruno said. “Summit Medical Group’s Diamond Hill Road campus was an example of what people said would cause crazy traffic but that hasn’t happened.”

Bruno said from early last year he was encouraging Wood to provide the Berkeley Heights Council with a courtesy review on planning and progress for the new facility but that never happened. “I have a letter from his attorney saying that a review was not necessary,” Bruno said.

Now Wood’s Berkeley Aquatic Center has to come before the council with its hat in hand to request an approval, that if denied, can sink the entire endeavor.

“We want to put this issue to bed,” Bruno said, “pending forthcoming litigation.”

Related Topics: Berkeley Aquatics Center, Warren Township Planning Board, and Warren Township Zoning Board