HOWELL — Redesigned plans for a Route 9 hotel have been filed with the Planning Board, but the applicant has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing before the board.

Applicant Leonard Solondz of Lake Real Estate LLC has submitted a revised application for Northwoods Center LLC. The plans show three restaurants and a four-story hotel on a site at the intersection of Route 9 north and Northwoods Place. The location is near Interstate 195.

Representatives of Northwoods Center are scheduled to appear before the Planning Board on Sept. 18 for a discussion of waivers. There will not be a public hearing on the application.

A previous application for this site proposed the construction of a six-story hotel with 126 rooms, a 6,100-square-foot restaurant and a 20,659-square-foot banquet hall on a 25-acre parcel in Howell's Highway Development (HD) zone.

The HD zone permits conditional uses that include hotels and conference centers.

The plans have been modified and now propose the construction of a four-story hotel with 124 rooms and three restaurants. One restaurant will be 5,024 square feet and include 185 seats; the second restaurant will be 8,000 square feet and include 237 seats; the third restaurant will be 6,240 square feet and include 210 seats.

The plans show 363 parking spaces (151 parking spaces for the hotel and 212 parking spaces for the restaurants).

According to a previous article published by Greater Media Newspapers, the applicant requested to have access to the hotel site from a residential street. That deviated from Howell's zoning law, which states that "hotels must have direct access to Route 9 or Route 33, and there shall be no ingress or egress from residential streets."

Solondz is now proposing an entranceonly access from Route 9 north and a oneway only exit to Northwoods Place.

When the previous plan for Northwoods Center came before municipal officials, residents who live in the neighborhood off Northwoods Place expressed their displeasure with the plans for a hotel.

According to information provided in an environmental report prepared by Richard DiFolco, the applicant's engineer, and Bryce Bennett, the applicant's landscape architect, a natural buffer will provide privacy for nearby homeowners when the proposed hotel and restaurants are built.

The report indicates there are wooded wetlands to the south and east of the hotel-restaurant site that provide a dense buffer to residential zones.

Despite the fact that the plan appears to conform to Howell's zoning requirements, Republican mayoral candidate Russell Bohlin said he is opposed to Northwoods Center. He said the plan will threaten Howell's waterways.

"Thanks to the Township Council's gutting of our riparian buffer ordinance last fall, the developer can now fit the hotel plus three high-turnover restaurants (on the site).

"Other people and I warned the council against this possibility but were ignored. This plan is much more destructive of the Northwoods neighborhood due to the buffer relaxation," Bohlin said.

Independent Councilman Robert Walsh, who will face Bohlin in the mayor's race, said, "I cannot comment on an application that is before the Planning Board. However, in regard to the hotel ordinance, it was passed in 2006. I voted against it.

"In October 2007, I along with Councilwoman Angela Dalton voted to repeal the ordinance. Councilwoman Cynthia Schomaker and Mayor (Joseph) DiBella voted to keep it," he said.

Walsh said that to suggest the Northwoods Center application will somehow affect the riparian buffer is false.

"Whether or not this application goes before the Planning Board is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the riparian buffer," he said. "The riparian buffer ordinance was drafted to mirror the state's (law) and to keep us from litigation."

According to information found in the applicant's environmental report, the development's design "honors the 300-foot riparian buffer to the C-1 stream onsite and the developed portion of the property is not in any flood plain."

A C-1 stream is a waterway that state officials have deemed worthy of maximum environmental protection.

The plans for Northwoods Center are available at town hall for public view.