Panel to examine Route 33 traffic near Village location
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - The Township Committee has appointed members to an ad hoc transportation committee that has been given the task of studying proposals that support access for motorists from Route 33 into the site of The Village at Manalapan retail center.

Preliminary Planning Board proposal has been granted for The Village at Manalapan, a 500,000-square-foot development on 135 acres at the corner of Route 33 west and Millhurst Road.

The Route 33 Committee will include Mayor Andrew Lucas, Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth, Township Engineer Greg Valesi, Planning Board members John McNaboe and Richard Cohen, and former mayors Jim Gray and Drew Shapiro.

Gray, Shapiro, Lucas and Roth all have Planning Board experience.

Lucas said the fact that The Village at Manalapan received preliminary site plan approval in May 2006 does not mean it will receive final approval that is needed before construction can begin. The application is on the Planning Board agenda for Dec. 13 for final approval. It is listed under public hearings.

Attorney John Giunco of the law firm Giordano, Halleran and Ciesla, Middletown, will no longer be representing Manalapan Retail Realty Partners in the ongoing application. The firm of Heilbrunn, Pape and Goldstein, Old Bridge, which had represented the applicant as general counsel in the application, will now be representing the applicant before the Board.

In a letter dated Nov. 27 informing Manalapan that his firm will now represent the applicant before the Planning Board, attorney Kenneth Pape wrote, "On behalf of Manalapan Retail Realty Partners, I have been authorized to advise you that it is the continuing goal of the partnership to identify and address the remaining township issues and concerns and to complete the approval process with all governmental agencies in an amicable and cooperative spirit."

At its Nov. 28 meeting, the Township Committee tabled a resolution asking the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to allow a new road to be constructed off Route 33 west at a point about 1,500 feet west of the highway's existing intersection with Millhurst Road.

The new road, if constructed, would lead back through the property where The Village at Manalapan retail center has been approved for construction and connect to The Meadows housing development.

The idea for the new road comes as traffic at the intersection of Millhurst Road and Route 33 has neared capacity prior to the construction of The Village at Manalapan.

Lucas said that intersection already holds an F rating (on a scale of A to F with A being the best level of traffic movement and F being the worst) and said the situation will only worsen as The Village at Manalapan shopping center would bring more vehicles to Millhurst Road and through the intersection of that street with Route 33.

As approved by the Planning Board, The Village at Manalapan does not include access from Route 33 west. All deliveries and customers heading to the shopping center would enter from several access points on Millhurst Road, according to the plans that were approved by the board.

Lucas said the new committee will work to develop a proposal to be submitted to the DOT with an effort toward getting the state agency to consider approving a twofold option - building a new road off Route 33 back to The Meadows housing development and building an overpass at that same location.

Lucas said also the township will ask the developer of The Village at Manalapan to put some money toward paying Valesi's firm, CME Engineering, Howell, to develop a "comprehensive traffic study for the project and the intersection so we don't have to rely solely on the (traffic) studies developed by the builder's traffic engineer."

Speaking about the mandate of the new committee and the people who were named to sit on the panel, Lucas said, "This is a project that will have a great impact on the town in the years to come. We want to make sure we do everything and have everyone involved that will be committed to making sure the township gets the best out of the situation."

The overpass mentioned by Lucas would permit drivers who are coming out of the new road at The Village at Manalapan to cross over Route 33 without stopping for a traffic light and then access Route 33 east.

Lucas said the overpass option would relieve traffic at the intersection of Route 33 and Millhurst Road.