The Center of “Excellence” (?) – A Done Deal?

October 26, 2019

On Monday, September 23, I attended a public hearing of Bridgewater’s Planning Board about a proposal for a major mixed-use development project on the site of the property vacated by Sanofi-Aventis on Route 202/206 South, after the company moved its research and development activities to Cambridge, Massachusetts, upon the acquisition of Genzyme, a major leader in the biotech industry.


This plan is highly contentious and disruptive to the character, demographics, and traffic issues of the area, while also disregarding the impact upon the small, historic village of Pluckemin, our neighbor very close by to the north on Route 202/206.

As a result, it has spawned a flood of opposition from a Bridgewater community that feels itself largely, if not wholly left out of the process.


I concur with the logic and claims of Preserve Bridgewater, a large, significantly meaningful group of Bridgewater Township citizens which has banded together to make its case against what it perceives as runaway development.


The Process:  The procedures in place at the October 23 Planning Board meeting were heavily skewed in favor of the site’s owner, Advance Properties which pushed its agenda forward on steroids that evening.