PEAPACK-GLADSTONE —The Matheny Medical and Educational Center has been at its location in the Peapack section since 1954, and center leaders say demand for its extremely specialized services, along with the need to update, is the reason the facility is seeking to expand.

But at least some of the 80 or so residents who attended a Wednesday, Sept. 29 land use board hearing on Matheny's application to add on 49,000 square feet at its Highland Avenue campus said such a large center would never be built on a narrow back road.

The unfinished public hearing on Matheny's application to add newer classrooms and space for 38 additional hospital beds has been continued to an Oct. 15 land use board meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m..

"Kids are walking on the road...with steep slopes and blind curves...at the same time 18-wheel tractor-trailers and other bigger vehicles are on that road," said Ruth Williams, a Highland Avenue resident.

Other residents, including Michelle Dominguez, allege that Matheny employees, delivery trucks and vans carrying outpatients speed along Highland Avenue, endangering their own children.

The application, if approved, would add a net 41,454 square feet onto the existing facility, since about 7,600 square feet of old buildings would be demolished, said Matheny spokesman Sanford Josephson. That would leave 171,829 square feet on Matheny's 81 acres at 65 Highland Ave., he said.

"The real thrust is to improve the quality of care we need to have at Matheny," said Steven Proctor, Matheny's president and chief executive officer.

Proctor described many of the services provided at the center for children and adults with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and similar conditions as usually coupled with other "medically complex" complications.

The school, licensed by the state Department of Education, began decades ago because many of the patients treated at Matheny faced the prospect of staying on for years, or perhaps a lifetime, Proctor said.

"Most of our patients are with us for a long time," he said.

A history of care

During its history, the center also began treating outpatients, although most medical care is for inpatients, he said. Proctor said about 600 outpatients, including residents of group homes who are driven to Matheny in vans carrying up to six patients, are served annually by Matheny. He said the number of outpatients was closer to 150 or less when he became president a decade ago.

Proctor said at the meeting the center takes very seriously any traffic violations for which its employees are cited, and will dismiss any of its employed drivers who receive more than one ticket. "We are very willing to work with the community to resolve any traffic concerns," he said after the meeting.

Proctor also said the proposed expansion might eventually add about 50 more employees at Matheny, which now employs about 500 people full- and part-time.

Much of the land use board's discussions with the hospital's professionals centered on a definition of what Matheny does, and whether the center has expanded its uses over time.

Proctor and an attorney for the center, Michael Osterman, said Matheny continues to operate as a health care facility with a school — a zoning use permitted by the borough.

Proctor said the center is also licensed by the state as a specialized hospital, and, therefore, takes on the role of teaching outside health-care professionals to provide specialized care.

During the hearing, Williams said the performing arts center at Matheny recently hosted a conference for more than 100 experts on the subject of brain damage. She questioned whether the building has become a conference center.

Proctor said such large group gatherings are very rare at Matheny and that input from outside professionals also improves the level of care for the center's patients.

Land use board members were aware of those activities and the treatment of outpatients at Matheny when approving other expansions over the past few decades, Osterman and Ronald Kennedy, a planner representing Matheny, said at the meeting.

But board members and the board's attorney said that the question of use could determine whether Matheny needs to seek a zoning variance for its application. If so, the applicant would have to provide more proof of why the expansion is necessary, said Roger Thomas, the board's attorney. No decisions were made at the meeting.

Linda Sadlouskos can be reached at 908-707-3148 or at lsadlouskos@mycentraljersey.com.

Source: mycentraljersey.com/article/20081004/NEWS/810050321