Developers seek to build 10 homes
Cheesequake State Park naturalist raises
some concerns
NATALIE M. VENA The Old Bridge Planning Board is set to hear an application to build 10 homes on this site on Schoolhouse Lane which borders Cheesequake State Park.
By natalie m. vena
OLD BRIDGE — After losing an appeal before the Township Council for a 13-home subdivision, developers are set to go before the Planning Board with a 10-home application instead, which is allowable according to zoning rules.
Schoolhouse Lane Associates of Old Bridge was scheduled to appear before the board July 11 to present an application for 10 homes to be developed on a nine-acre site adjacent to Cheesequake State Park and bordered by Schoolhouse Lane and Gordon Street. However, the hearing was canceled because a local newspaper failed to run a public notice prior to the hearing, according to Mark Breitman, a partner and lawyer for the development company.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment decided in December to allow a variance for 13 homes to be built on the site as opposed to 10. As a result, Schoolhouse Lane resident Debby Baumgartner spearheaded an appeal against the developers in March.
At last week’s meeting, Baumgartner reiterated residents’ concerns about drainage problems in the area surrounding the site and environmental damage that would occur if the board approves the new 10-home application.
"My primary concern is that the land is environmentally sensitive," Baumgartner said. "[Homes] should not be built on land that cannot be developed."
Baumgartner and her husband, Tom, said the parcel of land is a wetland area and therefore not developable. According to a survey of the area, the property line between the development and Cheesequake State Park shows that the park side is labeled as environmentally sensitive land.
"If I stand with one foot on the side of the development and one foot inside of the park, the development side is labeled as buildable land, while the park side is labeled as environmentally sensitive," Baumgartner explained. "It does not make any sense."
According to the Baumgartners, drainage is a problem for Schoolhouse Lane residents.
"A day after a storm, there is still water in the street," Debby Baumgartner said.
According to James Faczak, park naturalist at Cheesequake State Park, if the proposed homes are built, storm water will not be able to be absorbed into the earth, as it does now. Impermeable surfaces will cause increased water volume and increased water velocity, which will direct the overflow into neighboring Cheesequake Park.
An effect known as scouring would occur, said Faczak. Scouring occurs when storm water cannot be absorbed into the earth and it begins flowing quickly, causing sediment to erode from the sides of a bank at a faster pace, taking along with it sand and soil deposits which end up in lower areas of the watershed, explained Faczak. The deposits would flow into the salt marsh at the park, contaminating the area with non-point source pollution, which could include petro-chemical derivations and fertilizer runoffs from the new homes. The effects of scouring would lead to degradation of the area and a lower quality salt marsh, added Faczak.
"Right now we have ospreys nesting in the salt marsh," Faczak said. "Cheesequake has one of the best salt marshes in the state."
However, according to Breitman, all drainage problems have been solved.
"We re-engineered the site, hence reducing drainage by 45 percent. We also put in water purification systems which will improve the water runoff," Breitman said. "The only big issue that remains is in Kerr Estates."
Breitman is referring to a portion of the applicant’s drainage system that would interconnect to an existing storm water inlet on a lot in the Kerr Estates development.
According to Breitman, the homeowners have not given their permission to developers to install the easement.
Without the homeowners’ permission for the proposed drainage easement, the applicant’s engineer must explore other alternatives, according to a June 27 memorandum from Township Engineer Nelson Iglesias to the board.
The memo cites several drainage concerns regarding the application. In the memo, Iglesias also states, "Although we recognize the applicant’s rights to develop this property, we also feel very strongly that all efforts to preserve this site in its natural state should be pursued."
According to Breitman, the developers have applied to the state’s Green Acres program about the donation of 1.6 acres of the property to the state.
Additionally, the new application has been revised to include density averaging.
"We will now use 80 percent of the parcel to build 10 lots," Breitman said.
The proposed homes will be approximately 3,000 square feet in size and will be built on lot sizes averaging 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, added Breitman.
At this point, the developers have no plans to sell the property in its present state.
"We are real estate developers," Breitman said. "We buy land to develop it and sell it."
The application and the project is considered controversial by some because partner Barry Hopman is the former chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Hopman and fellow board member Matthew Reck stepped down from hearing the original application. Reck is employed by the Old Bridge Municipal Utilities Authority of which Thomas Galante, another partner, is a commissioner.
A new hearing date has not been scheduled yet, according to Planning Board Chairman George Koehler.