Medevac offices could find home in hangar Airport owner dropping proposal for new construction

November 16, 2005

Another Lawsuit

BEDMINSTER TWP. - A long-awaited plan for permanent Medevac rescue helicopter facilities at Somerset Airport, using existing hangar space instead of new construction, is expected to be filed within the next two weeks.

Airport owner Daniel Walker said he will appear before the township Board of Health at 7:30 p.m. today Thursday, Nov. 17, seeking approval of septic system plans for the proposed office/hangar complex.

"We thought that was a big enough hurdle that we should get it out of the way first," explained Walker.

He added that he hopes a new proposal to convert an existing hangar for Medevac office space will satisfy opponents who became upset about August 2004 conceptual plans to clear woods on the northern end of the airport property to build an office/hangar complex.

"We're hoping to tailor this so we can get it through (the Planning Board approval process) with minimal resistance," Walker said.

"The new plans are different from the conceptual," he added. "They're totally within our ability to do without any variances."

The 2004 conceptual plan called for more than four acres of woods to be razed to make way for a new helicopter hanger and Medevac administrative building apart from the main airport complex. A snow removal equipment building and paved aircraft tie-down site were also proposed in the same area.

Built in 1946, the airport is considered a conditional use in the township's 10-acre rural residential zone. Existing buildings and pavement cover approximately 10 percent of the airport's 175 acres, the maximum permitted by township ordinance.

To build the facilities described in the 2004 conceptual plan, the airport would have needed a variance to exceed lot coverage limits. Walker said lot coverage would not change under the new hangar conversion proposal.

Whether the opposition will be quelled by the scaled-down plans remains to be seen, however.

The Bedminster Branchburg Bridgewater Concerned Citizens Coalition (BBBCCC), an opposition group, has now filed a third lawsuit aimed at preventing a permanent Medevac relocation.

That suit, filed in state Superior Court in Somerville on Oct. 12, challenges a Board of Adjustment interpretation that helicopters are a permitted use at the airport, despite an ordinance that implies otherwise.

In June, the zoning board ruled that helicopters may be used and based at Somerset Airport despite an ordinance defining the facility as a site for "fixed wing aircraft."

The zoning board determined that the intent of the township's 1997 airport definition was to comply with a state law requiring safety zones at the ends of runways, not to exclude helicopters.

The decision cleared the way for the airport to seek site plan approval for a permanent office/hangar complex for the state's NorthSTAR Medevac rescue helicopter.

The chopper crew has been based in a temporary office trailer there since Feb. 4 under the terms of a special use permit. Previously, NorthSTAR was housed on the rooftop of University Medical Center in Newark.

The BBBCCC lawsuit claims that the zoning board's interpretation was "erroneous, in that the ordinance language in question is clear and unambiguous."

It also claims that the introduction of testimony and evidence that went beyond the ordinance language "contaminated" the board's deliberations, and that the interpretation was "erroneous, arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

Bridgewater Township, whose municipal border is located a short distance from the airport, has petitioned the court to allow it to become an official intervener in the suit.

"The Township of Bridgewater and its citizens are directly impacted and effected by the uses and activities of the Somerset Airport and, specifically, those which have given rise to the proceedings now before this court," according to court documents.

"Public safety, air pollution, noise, environmental considerations, quality of life issues, health, etc. and the proper interpretation . are matters which must be considered and protected by the governing officials of the Township of Bridgewater," the petition added.

Earlier lawsuits by the BBBCCC challenge aspects of the Township Committee's granting of a special use permit allowing the temporary Medevac office trailer.

By Sandy Stuart
Staff Writer