At a site-plan review before the local planning board late last week, Beste mapped out a proposal for a five-building, 14-store "power center" on a 51-acre site at the intersection of Route 9 and Lanes Mill Road, just south of a recently opened freestanding Kohl's department store. The Goldenberg project would have Target and a Lowe's home-improvement center as anchor tenants, as well as a Ruby Tuesday's restaurant. Other potential tenants were not named, although the mix would include a supermarket, sporting goods store and a women's apparel store, among others.

Beste told the township planning board that the shopping complex would generate approximately $650,000 per year in taxes, and would create between 900 and 1,000 permanent jobs. Goldenberg is also planning to invest an estimated $1.3 million on road improvements to enhance access to the complex. No development timeline was made public, pending planning board approval of the project.

Two different groups did raise some objections to the proposal. The first, a neighborhood group, voiced concern over the amount of traffic that would be generated by the proposed shopping center, especially because of its proximity to the new Kohl's department store. A spokesman for the group proposed that a connector road be built between the two properties, something that township officials have recommended against.

Another resident group voiced concerns over water runoff from the new center. A detention basin of more than three acres is part of the shopping center's site plan, but a spokesman for the group continued to express reservations at the planning board meeting.

The recent meeting was the first of a series of three planned regarding the proposed Lanes Mill Marketplace. The next one is currently scheduled for December 13.