Reserve residents protest
business development, road
By sandi carpello
Staff Writer
When Jill Richards purchased her $625,000 home in Monroe’s Reserve Development last August, she was looking forward to living in a peaceful community with her husband and two young children.
Now — less than four months later — Richards, who just learned the street behind her home will become a county highway, fears her hopes will be dashed.
Richards and other residents said this week that Reserve residents were not informed about the thoroughfare when they purchased their houses from U.S. Home, Freehold Township.
"We worked very hard, plunked all of our money down. We were trying to give our kids a quiet place to live in the country … (U.S. Home) told us the development would be a wooded, secluded and quiet place. What we got is a kick in the teeth. We all feel like such fools," Richards said.
Currently, a 15 mph speed limit sign stands near the entrance of the two-year-old development — a community that includes 130 single-family homes costing from $600,000 to more than $1 million. By April, the speed limit on a new county road bordering the development will be 45 mph.
While 13 lots in the community have yet to be sold, Matchaponix Associates, a Monroe-based development corporation, is currently in negotiations with U.S. Home to purchase approximately 30,000 square feet of Reserve property — encompassing four lots on Spotswood-Englishtown Road — to build a bank, a day care center, office buildings and playgrounds on that road. Those buildings will be in close proximity to residential lots.
The applicant is currently seeking a use variance from the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment for the changes.
Richards is not the only resident who is angry.
"People paid big premiums for this development. That is why they are so upset. This was supposed to be a private neighborhood," said Reserve resident Pat Marchini, of Forest Lane.
To date, Richards has collected 56 signatures on a petition opposing the heightened speed limit, the county road and the proposed commercial development.
The county road extension, which has been included in the township’s master plan since 1996, will connect Matchaponix Avenue, Matchaponix Extension and Texas Road, giving drivers a more direct route to Spotswood-Englishtown Road.
Due to heavy traffic on Texas Road during rush hour, officials believe that connecting these roads would increase safety while reducing traffic accidents in the township.
However, residents in the community argue that the construction of the county road, along with the heightened speed limit and the proposed commercial development, will destroy their quality of life and reduce their safety, while bringing major traffic through the community.
Although the Matchaponix Extension runs through the back of their properties and is not in front of their driveways, the school bus stops are located on the Matchaponix Extension.
That poses a major safety concern, said Marchini, who has three young children living in the development.
"People are already passing by the buses," she said.
Residents from the Reserve community said they were misled and would have never purchased those homes if they knew the Matchaponix Extension would become a major county road.
Antonio Rodrigues, of Stonegate Drive, said he was told that there would be a wall with gold letters surrounding the community.
Richards said she was told the community would be completely private, while several other residents said that U.S. Home provided tax maps in the sales brochure that did not indicate that Matchaponix Extension would become a county road.
"During both pre- and post-sale of homes with U.S. Home, many of us were unaware of the final design of the new county road. We understood the road to be connecting Matchaponix Avenue and Matchaponix Extension only, in which most of us understood it to be a local road. The plan in the sales office and sales handout indicated the same. The plan in the township’s zoning office was also the same," according to an Oct. 4 letter written by Sal Branchizio to U.S. Home Vice President and Project Manager Tony Calicchio.
Representatives from U.S. Home did not return calls for comment regarding these issues and others before press time.
After fielding numerous phone calls from concerned residents, Township Engineer Ernie Feist, along with Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton and Councilwoman Joanne Connolly held a meeting with 30 Reserve residents Monday night to discuss the situation.
According to Feist, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) determines the speed limit for county roads, making it "somewhat of a tricky issue."
"The state will look at it purely from an engineering standpoint," said Feist. "Twenty-five mph is not practical [for that road]."
Feist noted that the township’s master plan, which indicated that the Matchaponix Extension would become a county road, had been available in his office for nearly a decade.
He said the only feasible alternative for those concerned about matters is to go to the DOT and request that both the existing Matchaponix Road and the Matchaponix Extension be lowered to a 35 mph speed limit.
"I could make a good, sound engineering argument [to lower the speed limit]," Feist said.
Feist said he would also propose a one-way street sign going west on Texas Road.
In addition to discussing the speed limit, township officials were still trying to determine whether residents were deceived by U.S. Home.
"We are trying to get feedback from you," Hamilton told residents Monday night. "We are looking for acts of possible deception."
Residents displayed tax maps they received from the U.S. Home sales department when they purchased their homes.
"I don’t disagree that it is misleading," Feist said. "The maps don’t show or indicate that it is going to be an extension."
However, in an Oct. 16 reply to Branchizio’s letter, Carlucci denied the residents’ allegations.
"The [Matchaponix Extension] is a county road and always has been designated as one. Our new home consultants have always disclosed the fact that it connects Texas Road to Matchaponix Avenue. The final design approval was approved by the township representatives. The road is being completed per the approved plans."
U.S. Home has built developments in Monroe Township and is planning a 1,600-unit retirement community.
Although approximately 40 residents showed up for the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s meeting Tuesday night in an effort to protest the proposed commercial properties, the application was postponed until Jan. 25, due to the applicant’s failure to provide a traffic report.
Tuesday marked the second time since October that the application had been postponed.
Richards said she was not yet willing to move out of the development.
"We’re going to hang out and see how bad it is," she said.