Vote on Oaks at Glenwood
now expected in May
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — Unresolved issues between the township’s planning and engineering departments and professionals representing developer John J. Brunetti Sr. have delayed the Planning Board’s decision on a plan for a large-scale residential and commercial development off Route 9.
Although the board had expected to vote on preliminary and final site plan approval for Brunetti’s Oaks at Glenwood application during its meeting Tuesday night, the township’s professionals were not fully satisfied with the developer’s explanation of numerous technical engineering details, according to Board Chairman Roman Sohor.
As anticipated, Brunetti’s professionals did wrap up their testimony, and a public portion was conducted prior to the board’s 11 p.m. curfew. However, the board held off on a vote pending clarification of the engineering and planning details. The clarification was requested of the applicant’s professionals by Township Engineer John Vincente and Township Planner Sam Rizzo.
Vincente and Rizzo expect to let board members know if Brunetti’s professionals have clarified those details and answered questions to their satisfaction during the next scheduled meeting on April 1, Sohor said.
However, the board will have to consider that information before rendering a decision, Sohor explained. As a result, the vote will be delayed until the May 6 meeting.
Brunetti, president of the Old Bridge-based Brunetti Organization, has been seeking the board’s approval for several years to build the sprawling Oaks at Glenwood on a 453-acre site he owns on the southbound side of Route 9, near Perrine Road. The site is located just north of the Glenwood Country Club.
If approved, Oaks at Glenwood would consist of 1,504 residential units, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments, and 6,000 square feet of commercial-retail space concentrated on Route 9 south.
Building plans also call for a recreational center, tennis courts, a swimming pool, gazebos and picnic areas to be scattered throughout the complex.
Brunetti has also agreed to donate nearly 20 acres of his land to the township for the possible construction of an elementary school to serve any schoolchildren generated by the new homes.
The application now under consideration is a scaled-down version of his original plan to build 1,735 residential units. Brunetti has had approval to construct a residential/commercial development on the property since 1986.
To make his plan more palatable to both the board and the community, Brunetti has since revised his plans to construct 1,504 residential units along the Route 9 artery instead.
Plans to redevelop the township-owned Olympia & York (O&Y) tract, located between Routes 9 and 18 and Texas Road, will also be discussed at the next board meeting, Sohor said.
Although there is no pending application for use of the 500-acre tract at this time, township officials hope to develop the site as a commercial property in order to generate tax revenue and ease the tax burden on residents.
In November, the township’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) heard from two builders specializing in the construction of upscale, age-restricted housing complexes.
One of the developers, SGS Communities, Freehold Township, presented a plan to build a 350-unit age-restricted community on the site.
The other developer, Somerset-based Pulte Homes, proposed construction of a mixed-use commercial development driven by an accompanying age-restricted housing complex on the site. That plan was described by a Pulte Homes representative as being similar in nature to Celebration, Fla., a planned city located near Disney World.
Because the township has set its sights on developing that property as a hotel/conference center, office park or similar commercial ratables, both SGS and Pulte’s plans were greeted with a lukewarm reception from EDC members in attendance at that meeting.