Sports center applicant willing to address traffic
Improvements proposed for intersection of Route 33-Fairfield Rd.
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

HOWELL - A traffic expert said the developer of the proposed Monmouth County Athletic Center will make adjustments to handle traffic generated by the sports training facility.

Traffic engineer Mark Kataryniak tes- tified on behalf of the Monmouth County Athletic Center at the Sept. 17 Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing.

While the applicant's representatives laid out conceptual plans as to how they would resolve an increase in traffic, the zoning board's engineer recommended several conditions for the applicant to execute and evaluate in order to ensure that those concepts are brought to fruition.

Bart McInerney and Timothy McInerney, the applicants and owners, are seeking a use variance and site plan approval to construct a 360,000-square-foot indoor/ outdoor commercial athletic complex on the 45-acre site in the Special Economic Development (SED) and ARE- 6 zones on Fairfield Road.

The ARE-6 zone is a rural agricultural/ natural resource protection zone. The athletic center will be solely used as a recreational facility, which is a nonpermitted use in these zones.

According to T.J. Coan, principal and managing director, the athletic center will provide physical activity for student-athletes in grades five through 12, create 92 jobs, and be equipped with educated trainers.

The center will include an adult health club and wellness spa, a 25-meter pool and rehabilitation pool, a weight room for adolescents, four basketball courts, a suspended indoor track, a baseball field, 12 batting cages, a football field, a soccer field and a multipurpose field.

Coan said he and his partners chose Howell as a location for the venture because of the proximity of the location to the Freehold Regional High School District, which has almost 12,000 students between grades nine and 12.

A pre-build and post-build analysis has been conducted by Kataryniak in order to study the level of service as it relates to traffic in the area of Fairfield Road and Route 33.

"Our post-build analysis shows that we do not create a level of service concern or volume capacity operation problem. The post-build analysis shows no decrease in the level of service toward Route 33 to the north and Route 524 to the south," Kataryniak said.

He said one solution the applicant has developed from its analysis is to "widen the northbound approach (to Route 33) and add additional lanes. We would also take out the shoulder, creating a right turn lane under the overpass of Route 33."

The applicant also proposes to adjust the timing of the light at Route 33 and Fairfield Road from a 90-second cycle to a 70-second cycle to further lessen any congestion.

"This may not be an ultimate solution, however, we are trying to find a physical way to mitigate any impact that we create," Kataryniak said. "We would submit an application to the New Jersey Department of Transportation through the township, to get any permits we need to make these physical improvements."

Although the applicant has no legal obligation to make improvements at that intersection, and such changes would have to be a local initiative lead by the municipality, the applicant has expressed that it is more than willing to make offsite adjustments.

The conditions prepared by the zoning board engineer are:

• The applicant should provide conceptual plans and alternatives for the mitigation for the impact to this intersection on Route 33 and Fairfield Road, including the supporting analysis.

• The applicant should prepare the DOT street intersection permit for the township and everything that goes along with it to be submitted to the DOT.

• The applicant should "review existing action and data at that intersection to see if there are any trends that may be occurring to verify the adverse conditions that we believe exist."

The board is asking the applicant to "fund and facilitate the construction of the improvements required to mitigate adverse conditions which have been identified."

• The applicant is encouraged to perform traffic counts six months to a year after receiving a certificate of occupancy and the completion of improvements to verify the level of service, the capacity analysis and trip generations, as an effort to examine that the proposed operations meet expectations.

The applicant agreed to all stipulations.

The hearing on the application was continued to the zoning board's Dec. 3 meeting.