Planning Board — May 6, 2026

What was decided

Six members were present: Councilman Anbarasan, Theodore Chase, Jennifer Rangnow, Meher Rafiq, Robert Thomas and Chairman Orsini. Robert LaCorte, Charles Brown, Marc Dancy and Sami Shaban were absent.

• County of Somerset (PLN-26-00003), a minor subdivision of 1452 Canal Road, Block 9, Lot 2.04, in the Canal Preservation (CP) zone, with three bulk variances: approved 6-0 (motion Orsini, second Thomas; Councilman Anbarasan, Dr. Chase, Ms. Rangnow, Ms. Rafiq, Mr. Thomas and Chairman Orsini). No member of the public came forward. The resolution was memorialized June 17, 2026.
• IDIL Davidson LLC (PLN-23-00004): a second one-year extension of its final approval, to May 6, 2027, approved 6-0. Its attorney, Paul Conciatori, said the project was under construction and the extension was sought in case supply-chain problems paused it.
• The minutes of April 1, 2026 were approved 5-0.

No member of the public spoke during general public comment. Adjourned 8:36 p.m.

The Canal Road subdivision

The draft minutes record the testimony:

• Paul Conciatori, for the County, said the property was “currently comprised of 32 acres” with a house, and that about 9 acres with the house would be kept and the balance deed-restricted as open space acquired with public funds.
• Samantha DeAndrea, the County’s Director of Planning, said the County was under contract to buy about 23.9 acres of the 32.9-acre property for permanent open space. The preserved parcel, Lot 2.08, adjoins County open space to the north and east and lies in the Millstone Valley Preservation Area. The retained 9-acre lot keeps the existing house and accessory buildings, and no new development is proposed.
• The variances: about 297 feet of frontage on Canal Road for Lot 2.08 where 400 feet is required; a through lot, because the property fronts both Canal Road and Old Georgetown Road; and a 129-foot rear setback for an existing accessory structure where 150 feet is required. She said they qualify under the C2 criteria because preserving nearly 24 acres outweighs any detriment. Planning Director Mark Healey called them “technical variances” with no practical effect.
• Access to the County lot would be from a gate on Old Georgetown Road, she said, after Dr. Chase noted that the Canal Road frontage is steep.

The two accounts of the property’s size, “32 acres” and “32.9-acre”, are both as the draft minutes give them.

The re-examination ordinance (work session)

Mr. Healey said the Board had chosen to start with the easier and the higher-priority items from the 2026 re-examination (see master plan reexamination). The draft minutes record that the draft ordinance would:

• remove golf courses (except the existing one in the A zone), hospitals, and membership swimming pools (except in the R-40 zone, where one exists) from residential zones where they are now permitted; places of worship would stay, with their buffering and lighting standards;
• remove the township’s own standards for community residences, because the Municipal Land Use Law requires licensed group homes to be permitted like single-family homes;
• move misplaced sections, and permit the restaurants and health clubs that have operated for decades in the Cedar Grove and DeMott Lane shopping centers;
• base house-of-worship parking on building-code occupancy divided by three. Mr. Healey said the current rule of one space per 15 sq. ft. of worship area assumes one person per 5 sq. ft., three to nine times the building-code occupancy;
• allow indoor recreation in shopping centers over 25,000 sq. ft. in the neighborhood business, GB and Hamilton Business District zones;
• require sidewalks along all road frontages in site plan and subdivision applications, with a payment in lieu, equal to the construction cost, to a township sidewalk fund when the Board grants relief.

Board members asked about the County’s Spooky Brook golf course (the Board Attorney said a County facility comes for capital-project review only), group homes, and farming on R-40 lots, which Mr. Healey said needed further research. Chairman Orsini said he had written to the Council on behalf of the Board recommending that sidewalk money be used for the gap between NPH on Davidson Avenue and Somerset Woods on New Brunswick Road.

The Council introduced the resulting ordinance, Ord. 4509-26, on June 9, 2026.

Records

• Agenda · Draft minutes (attached to the June 17, 2026 agenda, where they were approved) · Packet
• Video on Granicus (1:06). Granicus publishes no captions for Franklin meetings; this page follows the draft minutes.