Planners begin hearing plan for adult community Toll Brothers has plans for Riviera at Freehold on Jackson Mills Road

Staff Writer

By PAUL GODINO

Planners begin hearing
plan for adult community
Toll Brothers has plans
for Riviera at Freehold
on Jackson Mills Road

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Testi-mony from the applicant’s professionals and comments from the public on Toll Brothers’ plan to construct an adult community on Jackson Mills Road are expected to resume Sept. 6.

On Aug. 2, the Planning Board began hearing an application for Riviera at Freehold. Toll Brothers wants to subdivide a 227-acre lot and build a 300-unit age-restricted community at Jackson Mills and Bergerville roads.

The property would be split into 310 lots, with 10 lots to be used for a clubhouse, open space and other recreation facilities and amenities, according to plans for the development.

The project is planned in two phases. Phase one would be the construction of 125 units, and phase two would be the construction of the remaining 175 units. Each house would be a detached, single-family, one-story unit with a loft, a two-car garage and a double-wide driveway.

Robert Fuller, assistant vice president of Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, said the living space in the homes would range from 2,000 to 2,600 square feet. He said the elevations would be different so the development does not look uniform and that the clubhouse would include a craft room, a computer/library room, card rooms, a billiards and game room, a fully equipped gym, locker rooms, saunas and a pool.

Project engineer Richard DiFolco of JKR Engineering, Freehold, testified that the development as planned meets all the zoning requirements for the Planned Adult Community zone in which it would be built. For such a development, 200 acres are required; the Riviera at Freehold would rest on 227 acres. It is required that there be no more than 1.5 houses per acre; DiFolco said construction plans call for 1.3 houses per acre.

DiFolco discussed traffic and access to the gated adult community. The main entrance would be on Jackson Mills Road, with a gatehouse. Residents would use a card to pass through the gate, and visitors would be announced to the residents. There would be a secondary access off Bergerville Road.

Also in the plans is one main road that would provide access to the homes, but there would be neither homes nor parking on the main road.

The development site along Jackson Mills Road is deemed to be an environmentally sensitive wetlands area. To deal with that situation, the developer wants to build several depth-controlled retention basins and detention basins. The man-made ponds would contain fountains to maintain circulation and keep the water from becoming stagnant, Fuller said.

Initial plans for the property in the late 1980s called for about 80 single-family homes (with no age restrictions) to be built and more than 50,000 cubic yards of fill dirt to be brought in to address the wetlands issues. The Township Committee eventually rezoned the parcel to permit the construction of a planned adult community such as the one now being proposed by Toll Brothers.

According to DiFolco, stormwater runoff would be directed through a series of drainage pipes into creeks on the property which are tributaries for the Manasquan River. Public water service would be extended to the development and a sanitary sewer pump station would be built on the property, he said, adding that the location of the pump station is in question.

The pump station was originally planned for a location on the Bergerville Road side of the property, but Albert Lownes, whose property abuts the development site, expressed concerns about that idea.

According to the plans, the pump station would be right next to Lownes’ property. He said he believes that plan would decrease the value of his house.

Township Engineer Joseph Mavuro said the pump station was planned for the Bergerville Road location because it is anticipated that the township will eventually own it. Mavuro said that location would provide easy access for the municipality without going through the development’s gated entrances.

On a suggestion from Deputy Mayor Eugene Golub, who sits on the board, the applicant will meet with Lownes and try to find a more suitable place to build the pump station.

Fuller also suggested that a landscaping plan could be produced in order to block the pump station from view.

In discussing the Riviera application, board members expressed concern about maintenance on the development’s roads and issues such as snow plowing.

Fuller said the community would have a homeowners association that would be responsible for providing services such as lawn care, snow plowing and snow shoveling.

Anther concern raised by nearby residents centered on the Riviera’s impact on private water supplies. The houses that neighbor the property have well water, and homeowners were concerned the development’s drainage system would lower the area’s water table and dry up their wells.

"Your project should not adversely affect your neighbors," Golub told the applicant.

He suggested that a study be conducted to determine if there would be an impact on the neighbors.

"If we were to cause the problem, we would obviously take care of the situation," said attorney Gerald Sonnenblick of Freehold Township, representing Toll Brothers.

It was suggested that the developer provide a tie-in to the public water system if the development affects the well situation.

Township resident Sidney Isaacs, who owns property on Jackson Mills Road next to the Riviera development site, asked several questions pertaining to the environmentally sensitive nature of the subject property. Isaacs told the board and the applicant that he is not against the Riviera project but wanted to know why a development of any kind would be allowed to be built on land that has been deemed to be environmentally sensitive.

He was told that because preliminary site plan approval had been granted for single-family homes in the 1980s, development on the property now slated for the adult community is allowed, even if the construction plans have changed.

Concerns were raised about traffic, leading the applicant to produce a traffic report conducted by Schoor DePalma, of Manalapan, stating that the adult community would have little impact on traffic in the area.

Other neighbors were worried about the proposed development’s effect on the deer population and had concerns about illegal hunting, which they said was already an issue in the area.

Fuller said signs would be put up acknowledging the prohibition of hunting on the premises.