Sayreville hears plans
for 208 housing units
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer
A plan for 208 single-family homes has Sayreville Planning Board members concerned about traffic patterns and safety.
Peter Mocco, the attorney representing Loraine Mocco, his wife, presented an informal site plan for the development known as Fulton’s Landing, which would be built on a 156-acre tract of land between Main Street and Washington Road.
The Fulton’s Landing development is designed for about 99 acres of Loraine Mocco’s property, said the applicant’s civil engineer, Gary Dahms, a senior vice president of T&M Associates, Middletown. The remaining 56 acres — located just east of the proposed housing development — would be dedicated for commercial use, Dahms said.
An informal hearing was held July 16 so the property owner could get feedback from the Planning Board and its professionals about the residential development component. The residential area allows for 2.1 units to be built on each acre and requires that 40 percent of the land remain as open space, in accordance with a borough ordinance.
The open space, according to the plan, would remain around the perimeter of the development, with a larger open space area in the center. Planning Board members questioned whether the land would be maintained by a homeowners association, or if it would be turned over to the borough.
Peter Mocco said the open space was intended for more passive recreation use. However, he said the applicant would consider turning over some property to the borough for athletic fields, as Planning Board member Michael D’Addio mentioned. If the open space is not turned over, a homeowners association would handle the maintenance, Mocco said.
The main source of worry for several board members was the design of the roads throughout the Fulton’s Landing design plan. According to Dahms, an access road from Main Street would be built near the Main Street extension. The road would continue south through the development and, after the commercial property is built out, eventually connect with Lakeview Drive. Another major road through the development would be the continuation of White Oaks Drive, which is currently a dead-end road. White Oaks would run from west to east through Fulton’s Landing and connect with the access road from Main Street, Dahms said.
Board members spoke with Dahms about adding curves into the roads, which as currently designed are straight roads on the informal site plan. Planning Board member Donald Newton said he was concerned that the straight roads may tempt people to speed, and that curves may slow them down.
Dahms also said that the applicant was considering building White Oaks Drive and the Main Street access road as boulevards, which would add a median, possibly with trees, between the lanes.
Dolly Wranovics of Cedar Terrace said she was worried about the Main Street access road connecting with Lakeview Drive, which in turn would bring vehicles to Washington Road. She said that with the middle school and high school in the area, not to mention the senior housing near Lakeview Drive, the connection of these roads could create a dangerous thoroughfare.
Borough Engineer Jay Cornell said the addition of the Main Street access road as a connection to Lakeview Drive and Washington Road is part of the borough’s master plan. Newton added that he would like as many connections between Main Street and Washington Road as possible since it would alleviate traffic in other residential neighborhoods.
Board members reminded Mocco that additional buffering, including landscaping, was necessary along the eastern portion of Fulton’s Landing since across the Main Street access road the remaining 56-acre tract would be built up for commercial use. Cornell said a 100-foot buffer was needed between the residential and commercial area.
Board Planner John Leoncavallo asked the applicant to landscape the open space area surrounding the residential development as well.
Board member Frank Bella asked the applicant if the Planning Board could review the designs for the commercial portion of the property as well. Bella said he saw the proximity of the two uses as a disadvantage.
Mocco told Bella that the commercial and residential properties are two separate projects. However, when the applicant returns before the board for preliminary site plan approval, they can try to give the board an idea of what the commercial property will include, Mocco said.
"The issues that were raised, we’ll certainly try to incorporate them into the plan we present before the board," Mocco said.
In April, the Appellate Division of Superior Court upheld a 2002 court decision that affirmed zoning changes that affected Loraine Mocco’s property.
Loraine Mocco filed suit against the municipality in May 1999 after the 156-acre property was subjected to zoning changes due to amendments made to the borough’s master plan in March 1999. Mocco’s property was among eight large, undeveloped properties that the borough rezoned to conform with a planned development zoning designation, according to a press release from Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti, who represented the borough during litigation.
The intention of the new "planned development, or PD Zone," was to "control density, promote a mixed use of housing types and preserve existing open space in the municipality," the press release states.
The residential density in these zones was reduced from four units per acre to 2.1 units per acre, and the open space was increased from 25 percent to 40 percent of the development zone.