The Planning Board approved plans to build a 151,507-square-foot Walmart on the Golden Triangle site, Wednesday.
The structure, located at the corner of Tices Lane and Route 18 and bordered to the east by the Old Bridge Turnpike, is expected to be smaller than the existing building, which is approximately 236,000 square feet, and will include a grocery store and pharmacy.
Thomas Kelso, an attorney representing Toll Brothers, told the Planning Board that a tentative agreement had been made with Walmart to use the space, contingent on the application's approval. Kelso did not say when construction will begin, but he expected it to start before the end of the year, or "ASAP," as he told the board.
Architect for the developer, Daniel Condatore, said 60 percent of the building will be used for general merchandise and 40 percent will be used for the grocery section.
The decision included approval of three use variances dealing with the number of parking spaces, trees and cargo bays on the building. Toll Brothers, requested that it build 722 parking spaces rather than 748, four loading bays rather than seven, and plant 112 trees throughout the parking lot rather than 142.
In exchange for the decrease in trees, the developer agreed to consider making a donation to the township’s Shade Tree fund. It also will include 1.4 acres of green landscaping throughout the site.
Part of the parking plan includes 152 employee parking space, 97 of which will be located along Route 18, and the remaining along Tices Lane
According to the application, the shopping center is expect to create between 250 and 275 permanent jobs, and its hours of operation will be 7 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. Entrances to the facility include one from Route 18, one from the Old Bridge Turnpike, and two from Tices Lane.
Carl Pehnke, traffic engineer for the applicant, said he expects 40 percent of traffic entering the site to come from Route 18, 29 to 30 percent from Tices Lane, and 30 percent from Old Bridge Turnpike.
Improvements to the Tices Lane intersections include a widening of the intersection closest to Route 18, a left turn only lane, and a stacking lane on Tices Lane for cars waiting to make a left into the complex. The entrance also will be the main entrance for truck deliveries.
Pehnke said the store will get about six tractor trailer delivers a day, and 15 to 16 deliveries from smaller panel trucks each day.
The Tices Lane entrance was of particular concern for some Planning Board members. Laurence Bravman said he was concerned about cars making left turns from the shopping center onto Tices Lane. He also questioned the idea that trucks would use Route 18 exclusively to access the site, saying that trucks coming from Route 18 will would take Edgeboro Road to Old Bridge Turnpike, rather than travel south of the store, taking a jughandle and coming back.
In addtion, Pehnke said the amount of traffic would be higher during the week than when it was home to a Sam's Club, furniture outlet, and flea market. However, traffic would be significantly lighter than it had been on Saturdays, when people flocked to the market.
"It will be high during weedays in the pm, and less than was gnerated on a Saturday," he said. "It also would be substantially less than what would be gnerated if the building remained the same size."
, Toll Brothers is allowed to build up to 220,000 square feet of commercial retail space—with no one store being larger than 180,000 square feet—and 200 to 400 housing units. Under the agreement, no more than 10 percent of those units can be three bedroom apartments. Mayor David Stahl has said he expects Toll Brothers to build close to the maximum number of units allowed.
Toll Brothers has yet to present plans for the residential component.
Your comments related to "additional" traffic...are laughable at best. You are right...there will be additional traffic....straight to Wally-world. With nearly 160,000 sf. of schlock merchandise under one roof...every bottom feeder will flock there....shop....and LEAVE. There's zero incentive for someone to venture to another store. Of course...they might get hungry after their venture to the bargain-basement....so maybe the local McDonalds might do some increased business? They get busy...and must hire 5 more people for those high paying jobs!!. Is that the additional revenue that you alluded to? Oh...wait...McD's might be somewhat "high-end" for the typical Walmart shopper...so maybe I'm wrong.
The traffic comment is appalling. The job of the planning board is to reduce traffic, not add to it.
I would like to know what other businesses, if any, were interested in the golden triangle and why the town approved walmart. I guess i should have thought about it a while ago when the it was discussed at planning board town council meetings, both open to the public.
Additionally...the Target is in Milltown...so EB residents had no say in what was proposed...or what modifications were carried out. But let's stop talking food stores for a moment...let's talk about..hmmm?..the Best Buy that's right next to the walmart site. Best Buy has announced that they will close 50 stores this year, with another group to close next year. Although the EB Best Buy is not on a closing list now...what might be the affect of having a bargain-store adjacent to them selling comparable merchandise for 20% to 40% less (supposedly the same items...but the quality is lower because it's made specifically for walmart pricing strategy). I sincerely doubt that any other retailer was actively courted to occupy that site. ......the tough questions should have been asked by the planning board members and the mayor's office..that was their job..and they failed.
http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/walmart-and-workers/ Walmart masks the truth about the wages paid to their employees. The average Walmart employee makes about $8.81 per hour according to a study by Bloomberg News. Full time employees, defined by Walmart as 34 hours a week, make on average $15,500 per year. Hundreds of thousands of people who have FULL TIME jobs at Walmart continue to live below the poverty line. As a result, many Walmart workers must utilize state subsidized benefits, and studies have found that people working for Walmart are more reliant on government benefits – costing taxpayers more than $1 billion nationwide. Walmart has a history of denying employees the right to organize and collectively bargain. The company engages in anti-union tactics by requiring workers to attend union busting training, particularly supervisors. Between July 2005 and June 2011, Walmart settled an estimated 70 state and federal class action wage and hour lawsuits and lost one jury trial of a wage and hour case, involving a total of well over a million current and former employees and costing the company over $1 billion. The lawsuits covered wage and hour violations including unpaid wages and lack of legally required breaks.
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Problem is ...Milltown / Ryders intersection backs up horribly NOW ...so, people cut through the residential streets of the Country Lane Woods neighborhood ...at speeds sometimes exceeding 50 mph. During the morning rush hours of 6 am to 9 am ...the traffic count skyrockets from about 1 car per 5 minutes ....to 5 or 10 cars per minute. So ...even though the walmart is 2 miles away ...my quality of life will be impacted by even more cars looking to avoid Rte 18 & Tices Lane. ....the "town leaders" in keeping with their short-sighted track record, again failed miserably. And the 'town' won't do anything like installing speed-bumps or stop signs in my neighborhood (which work like a charm) ...because no one has been killed by a car ...yet.