Water company given OK for new building
BY REBECCA MORTON Staff Writer

MARLBORO - The Gordon's Corner Water Co. will soon have a new home on Vanderburg Road after receiving approval for the facility from the Planning Board.

The company's application for a 10,200- square-foot, one-story building with a basement and an 1,800-square-foot detached garage was approved at the board's July 2 meeting. The new building will be about 120 feet from the intersection of Vanderburg Road and Railroad Avenue.

The Gordon's Corner Water Co. is an investor-owned water utility that serves customers in southern Marlboro and northern Manalapan. The company currently serves 15,000 customers (about 48,000 residents), according to the company's Internet Web site. The company's present headquarters is on Route 520, Marlboro.

The Vanderburg Road property on which the company's new building will be constructed is in a light industrial (LI) zone. There are two homes across the street from the LI zone.

In order to be considerate to those residential neighbors, engineer John Ploskonka said the water company's building would have two driveways, one for entering and another for exiting the site.

Only the entrance driveway to the company's property will be across from the homes, in order to curtail headlights from shining into the homeowners' windows. It was noted that the exit driveway will not be across from the homes. The company's business office will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Members of the Marlboro Historic Preservation Advisory Commission were on hand at the Planning Board meeting to listen to details of the plan. The company's new site will be just outside the historic district's boundary, but attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, representing the applicant, told the board his client was more than willing to cooperate with the historic commission.

Scott Wolf, representing the historic commission, said the planned architecture of the building is similar to that of the nearby Marlboro historic district. A backlit sign was the only proposed element that would not meet the historic district requirements.

Upon hearing that concern, representatives of the water company told Wolf they would light the sign from the front in order to keep a uniform look with the neighboring historic area.

A variance was requested since 3 acres is required in the LI zone, but the parcel in question is 2.6 acres. Sonnenblick said the water company sought to acquire adjacent land in order to meet the LI zone's 3-acre requirement, but was unable to do so.

Variances were also sought regarding setbacks due to the shape of the property, which was described by Ploskonka as being narrow, similar to a bowling alley. The water company's property is bordered by another business and by the Henry Hudson Trail, resulting in setback requests of 55 feet and 53 feet when 70 feet is required.

Water from the site would travel underground to a detention basin at the rear of the property, Ploskonka described. The basin would discharge water into a nearby drainage swale (depression) to be filtered back into the ground at a very low flow rate, the engineer said.

Board members expressed concern about planned parking spaces for the building that would be near the property line with the Henry Hudson Trail. The installation of a wood guardrail was requested by the board to help separate the company's parking lot from the walking and bicycling trail.

Sonnenblick said a guardrail would be added to the property.

Board members voted 6-0 to approve the building proposed by the Gordon's Corner Water Co. along with the requested variances.