Specifics of Crossroads Stores Will Wait for Final Approval

Township officials and representatives of the Crossroads Developers say a nearly two-year long hearing on the preliminary site plan for the Crossroads Town Center shopping development is nearing an end. 

Planning Board hearings that started in January of 2012 have discussed numerous aspects of the plan for the development - everything from traffic patterns inside and outside of the shopping center to the size and location of box stores, a movie theater, shops and restaurants.

However, locals who have been waiting to find out what stores will actually make up the Crossroads development will not find out anytime soon.

At a continued hearing Monday night, the developer outlined the plan as it currently sits, incorporating changes its taken on based on the past 22 months of review by the township’s professionals and its planning board.

The current plan represents “refinements,” on the original one, submitted to the township in 2011, Crossroads Attorney Jim Jaworski said Monday.

“There have been no substantive changes.”

If the board grants the developer preliminary site plan approval, its team will essentially be going back to the drawing board to refine all of its plans. Before the center could become a reality, the developer needs to resume hearings in front of the planning board to seek final site plan approval.

Monday night, Jaworski and civil engineer Mike Junghans outline all of the aspects of the plan that are not yet specific.

Details that will wait until the final site plan submission include what tenants the developer anticipates to have in the shopping center, and what the architectural aesthetic of the buildings will be. Jaworski said the look of the buildings depends on the specific stores that will occupy them, so presenting a detailed architectural plan at this phase would be impossible.

“We currently do not have any tenants,” he said.

Other components of the design that will likely wait until the final phase to be detailed include lighting, signage, bench placement, and other, “more minor items,” Jaworski said.

The controversial question of whether or not an athletic facility will sit at the back of the Crossroads property will also likely be decided during the final site plan hearings, he said. The ball field, a stipulation of the ordinance allowing for the development, has been questioned by residents and officials asking whether or not the shopping center is an appropriate location for it.

Officials say that if the developer is granted preliminary approval by the board, it could take about a year before final site plan hearings begin.