updated proposal
of project OK
Developer returns with
plan for 382 apartments
Marlboro board hears
updated proposal
of project OK’d in 1990
BY LARRY RAMER
Staff Writer
Marlboro
MARLBORO — A 13-year-old application for 382 apartments in Marlboro just south of the Aberdeen border was resurrected at a Sept. 3 meeting of the Planning Board. However, unlike 1990, the applicant, Ohad Associates, is now asking the board for permission to build and sell so-called affordable housing units at the site.
Peter Buchsbaum, the attorney representing Ohad Associates, presented the application for the development, now known as Northpointe, as an amended version of a site plan that was approved by the board in 1990.
According to Lorali Totten, a civil engineer representing Ohad Associates, the proposed project, which would be located just south of Lloyd Road and north of the Marlboro Memorial Middle School, will include 18 buildings.
Testifying before the board, Totten said the buildings will contain between 12 and 24 apartments.
The 1990 resolution passed by the board that approved the construction of apartments at this site stipulated that the builder would pay for 85 affordable housing units to be built/rehabilitated in Freehold Borough. Such an arrangement is known as a regional contribution agreement.
By doing this, the builder would have allowed Marlboro to meet a portion of its obligation to provide affordable housing, as mandated by the state’s Mount Laurel court cases. Now, however, the applicant is seeking approval from the board to actually build the 85 affordable housing units at the site in Marlboro.
Ohad Associates’ application to build the affordable housing units in Marlboro provoked a sharp reaction from Mayor Matthew Scannapieco, who sits on the Planning Board. The township has included the 85 units in the number of affordable housing units it is allowed to transfer to other towns, the mayor said.
If township officials had known that the 85 affordable units would actually be built in Marlboro, Scannapieco said, the units would have been counted toward Marlboro’s obligation to provide a designated number of affordable housing units in the town. As a result, "the township lost the opportunity to transfer other [affordable housing] units to other towns … believe me, nobody wants to see extra [affordable housing] units in Marlboro," Scannapieco said.
Buchsbaum replied that the additional affordable housing in town would give Marlboro "additional flexibility" in dealing with a pending lawsuit challenging the town’s affordable housing policy. Marlboro’s ordinance gives developers the right to decide whether to transfer affordable housing to other towns or to build affordable housing units at their developments, Buchsbaum added.
Asked whether the builder, Michael Weitz, has decided if the apartments will be rented or sold as condominiums, Buchsbaum said Weitz has not made that decision.
Responding in a strict tone, Planning Board Chairman Mario Giudice said, "I strongly recommend that an answer to that question be given to the board way before we consider going forward with this application."
The 1990 resolution stipulated that the builder had to sell all of the units in the development as condominiums.
Approximately 40 residents of Aberdeen and Marlboro attended the meeting and several expressed their concerns about the proposed development.
Nancy Zavoluk, an Aberdeen resident whose back yard is literally in Marlboro, said the new development will be just 60 feet from her property.
"I will have approximately 750 new neighbors … I’m concerned about privacy, noise, and light. I hope the developer at least provides fences at the end of the construction site for us," Zavoluk said.
A wet basin being built at the site may become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, added Zavoluk, who said she was apprehensive about the possibility that mosquitoes breeding at the site could carry West Nile virus.
Marlboro resident Peter Balog, who lives on Lloyd Road, wondered how Lloyd Road could handle the extra traffic that he said would be generated by the new development.
"What’s going to happen to all the additional traffic, 300 or 400 more cars, that’s going to spill onto Lloyd Road from this development? We have a hard time now backing onto the road," said Balog.
The resident said traffic from the CPC Behavioral Healthcare facility at the corner of Lloyd and Nolan roads and the Marlboro Memorial Middle School on Nolan Road would also add traffic to the road. Balog also suggested that the residents in the Northpointe development would not have enough parking within the complex.
Two of the variances Ohad Associates is seeking from the Planning Board involve parking. The builder wants to provide 913 parking spaces for the development, while 955 are required by the township’s ordinance. Totten said the 913 parking spaces exceed the number suggested by statewide RSIS (Residential Site Improvement Standards).
Also, Ohad Associates has proposed parking spots that are 9 feet wide, while the township requires parking spots to be 10 feet wide. The 9-foot width will be adequate, Totten said, since residents will not be frequently moving in and out of parking spots, as customers at a strip mall would be.
The applicant is also seeking a variance from an ordinance that sets the maximum number of families in one building at 12 (the proposed development would have a maximum number of 24 families per building). Placing a greater number of apartments than permitted by the township ordinance would allow the development to provide more open space between each building, Totten said.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Aberdeen, David Sobel, said he has spoken with Aberdeen residents who attended the Marlboro meeting on Sept. 3. Sobel said Aberdeen officials are looking into ways they can provide input to the Marlboro Planning Board about the Northpointe project.
"We’re having our attorney look at the agreement that’s in place to see what input we can provide into that prospect," Sobel said.
Aberdeen’s township engineer will also look at the site to see if he has any concern, Sobel said. Representatives from Aberdeen and its governing body plan on attending future board meetings to hear the issues and concerns of residents, Sobel added.
"We’re not happy with [the project]," he said. "We’ll see if we can have some sort of effect in terms of the final design of the project."
For his part, Scannapieco did not sound like he was willing to let Ohad Associates breeze through the application process.
"With the increased number of apartments and more total parking, I begin to sense this is a new application," the Marlboro mayor said.
If the entire board determines that Ohad Associates is presenting a new application, the applicant will have to justify all of the variances being sought, Planning Board Attorney Dennis Collins said. If the application is determined to be an amended version of the 1990 site plan, the builder will only have to present arguments justifying variances that were not approved in 1990, or variances that are more lenient than those approved approximately 13 years ago.
Greater Media Newspapers staff writer Josh Davidson contributed to this report.