21-home development would be built next to boys’ home

Staff Writer

By lynn k. barra

MONROE — A housing development to be built on a 26-acre parcel of land near the N.J. Training School for Boys has been approved by the Planning Board.

The development can only be built if the developer is granted a required permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Primrose Inc., the developer, wants to build 21 single-family homes on the parcel, which is bordered by Gravel Hill-Spotswood Road and Schoolhouse Lane.

While the board recently approved the application to build what will be called Primrose Acres East, that approval is contingent upon permission from the DEP to build proposed sidewalks and curbs on a portion of the site that is considered wetlands.

According to Township Engineer Ernie Feist, Primrose will be the first developer to actually purchase wetlands from U.S. Wetlands, a company that maintains 150 acres of wetlands property in the township — referred to as a wetlands mitigation bank.

By purchasing the same number of wetlands from U.S. Wetlands that it must develop in order to build all 21 homes, Primrose will be allowed to construct the homes without disturbing the wetlands that the township now maintains. Township officials created the mitigation bank, in part, to allow a developer who cannot avoid building on small sections of wetlands, the opportunity to develop a parcel of land that would otherwise be deemed undevelopable because of its wetlands.

"If a developer disturbs wetlands, he needs to obtain a DEP permit to do so," Feist said. "The DEP must approve the purchase of wetlands from our wetlands mitigation bank. We have a company in town, U.S. Wetlands, that sells wetlands. We created this concept as a way for the township to creatively take a tract of land and preserve it as wetlands and open space."

Because the township requires construction of sidewalks and curbs around the perimeter of all new housing developments, Primrose will need to build a section of sidewalk on wetlands. This cannot be done unless the developer replaces the wetlands area by purchasing the equivalent number of wetlands from the township. For this to be done, the developer must be granted approval from the DEP.

While Primrose was granted a sidewalk waiver by the Planning Board, pending DEP approval, to build on wetlands, some of the board members raised concerns about another aspect of the developer’s plans.

Primrose requested a variance so it would not have to "berm" the entire perimeter of the housing development, as is required by the township. Berming is a process in which trees and other types of landscaping are placed around a housing development so that the development is somewhat hidden from the surrounding roads. The idea is to create an aesthetically pleasing buffer around the homes.

Primrose Engineer Lorali Totten cited potential seasonal soil erosion problems on some of the proposed housing lots as its reason for requesting the variance. The entire 26-acre parcel of land is located in a high water-table area where the groundwater is high. Rainwater will collect there more rapidly than in low groundwater areas, she said. On some of the lots, the placement of slopes and trees could potentially cause erosion problems during rainy seasons, according to Totten.

The board approved the variance, despite objections raised by some of its members, including Anthony Wilcenski, who was the only member to vote against the variance.

"The board created a variance, which it can do if the developer can prove a hardship in constructing homes," Wilcenski said. "Primrose could’ve kept the same amount of houses it wanted to build and moved them around a bit to create the berms. They could’ve angled the homes differently."

Councilman John Riggs, who also sits on the board, took issue with the proposed buffering to obscure the view of both the adjacent juvenile prison and electrical power lines, which are located on either side of the proposed site.

"You have a site that is aesthetically challenged," Riggs said. "On one side, you have an electric power line. On the other, the boy’s home. You have some gaps in the [proposed] tree line… . I think there is a deficiency in that manner," Riggs said.

"I know I wouldn’t want to pay the price of these houses and have the state home seen from my back yard," Riggs said.

Feist said that while the juvenile correctional facility is fenced in, 450 acres of undeveloped land is located along the perimeter of the fence. Some of the proposed new homes will be constructed within 200 feet of the unfenced area, Feist said.

"New homeowners might be able to see some of it, but it’s a pretty good distance away. We [the township] don’t see that facility as a problem in residential areas because it’s a secure facility," Feist said. "Since the fence was erected around two years ago, there have been no escapes."

Feist also said that on the side of the proposed housing development, the power lines — that are within 200 feet of the proposed construction — will be visible to new homeowners.

"The power lines are clearly visible," Feist said.

While the developer proposed filling in the gaps and adding evergreen trees to its buffering plans along the side located next to the correctional facility, another buffering issue needed to be addressed by the board before it would consider approving the new housing development.

Local resident Ray LaBrun, a township volunteer fire chief, requested that Primrose build a dense tree buffer in the back of his property. LaBrun lives in a house near one of the proposed housing units and wanted the developer to provide more buffering. He made the request because he didn’t want future homeowners to complain about seeing his pigeons. LaBrun raises pigeons and flies them as a hobby.