in Wall Twp. that must
be reached from Howell
Jacob Drive residents
ticked at plan for road
Issue centers on homes
in Wall Twp. that must
be reached from Howell
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
HOWELL — One person’s solution can become another person’s problem, as Mayor Timothy J. Konopka and Township Council members discovered after they proposed what they thought was the perfect solution to a problem in the Ramtown section of the community.
About 50 angry Ramtown residents came to the municipal building on June 29 to complain about a proposed access road the council wants to build behind Jacob Drive that would link their neighborhood with an adult community in neighboring Wall Township.
Hidden View, the 177-home adult community at the heart of the matter, is under construction. While the development is in Wall, it can only be reached through streets in Howell and Brick. Wetlands block access to the Hidden View property from Wall. Howell officials fought the Wall Planning Board’s approval of the development all the way to the state Supreme Court and lost.
Municipal officials are now planning to annex the site and make it a part of Howell, since Howell will most likely be supplying first aid responses and fire protection to Hidden View.
The residents’ reaction came just a week after municipal officials appeared to mollify residents of Pine Needle Street and Cherry Lane by devising a plan to keep Hidden View’s traffic off their streets.
The residents who are now up in arms live in the Newtons Corner Road vicinity of the Forest Ridge and Briarcrest housing developments. They are not happy with the township’s proposed solution because it would move the access road into Hidden View to their neighborhood.
The construction of the proposed road would cost Howell $750,000 and would include a sidewalk, according to Michael Vena, the township’s planner.
Vena told residents on June 29 that the proposed road has received tentative approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) since it is a solution that proposes the least disturbance to the land.
The residents said the developer of Hidden View should be forced to seek permission from the DEP to build a road through Wall’s wetlands.
Vena told them the developer did seek DEP approval to put a road in through the Wall side but was denied at the outset by DEP field engineers because of the existing roads in Howell, including Cherry Lane and Pine Needle Street.
According to Vena, the construction of the proposed road would convert Jacob Drive into a "T" intersection, allowing the new road to run behind homes on Jacob Drive and Deborah Lane and open onto Newtons Corner Road.
However, Vena said that in order for the road to be built, approval is needed from two private homeowners associations in the area.
That statement was met by catcalls from the audience, and later comment indicated the homeowners associations would not permit the town’s proposed road to access any of their private land.
Township Attorney Thomas Gannon said there are other ways for Howell to acquire the rights that are needed in the area.
"There are many ways to acquire property," he said. "We prefer to negotiate."
Attorney Steven Kotzas, representing the Briarcrest East Homeowners Association, said his client would not be agreeable to any road construction that involved the use of his client’s private land. The road as designed would encroach on the Briarcrest East detention basin, something Kotzas said his client will not permit.
He said case law did not support eminent domain (public condemnation of the land), which seemed to be the recourse to which Gannon alluded. Kotzas said Howell should not seek to build a new road based on a cursory refusal by some field agents of the DEP who made a quick inspection and decision years ago when Hidden View was being planned.
Instead, Kotzas said, the developer of Hidden View should be compelled to make a full application to the state for a road through Wall’s wetlands and, if needed, litigate the matter with the state.
His statement was met by applause from the audience.
Almost unanimously, the residents asked why DEP approval could be expected for a road through Howell’s wetlands and not Wall’s wetlands.
Among those who spoke on the record were residents who said they had paid a premium price for their housing lot because it backed up to wetlands. They said they had been assured that the land could never be developed for any purpose.
Jacob Drive resident Dave Malanowitz asked why Wall Township’s problem was being "dumped" on his doorstep. Malanowitz said he saw the proposed Memorial Drive as being nothing more than a "mile-and-a-half speedway."
The council came up with the proposed road construction and annexation plan in response to a group of Howell residents who live in the area and made officials aware years ago that Hidden View would put more traffic on their 25 mph streets.
After years of litigation, the state Supreme Court ultimately ruled that although Howell had "legitimate needs and concerns," both Wall and Howell had to work together to remediate the situation.
The prospect of additional access routes in and out of Hidden View were always limited due to the fact that the development is bounded by wetlands and the Garden State Parkway.
Vena announced the remedy being proposed for the Pine Needle Street, Cherry Lane and Red Bud Lane residents to a receptive crowd at the council’s June 22 meeting. The proposed solution was that Howell would take 14 acres of vacant land near Jacob Drive and build a road that would be the only access road for motorists into Hidden View.
That plan has proven to be unacceptable to the residents of Jacob Drive.
According to municipal officials, the developer of Hidden View, Howell Properties of Woodbridge, and Wall officials have agreed to let Howell annex the adult community.
Konopka has said annexing Hidden View would not impact Howell schools and would help to offset the cost of providing police and emergency services to the development. He said Howell will have to provide those services even if the township does not annex Hidden View.
The residents did not appear to agree with the governing body’s view that there would be a moral imperative for Howell to respond to emergency calls in Hidden View. They were told that any fire or medical response into Hidden View from Wall would take at least 25 minutes and that Howell would be compelled to respond sooner since it would be the right thing to do.
Township Manager Bruce Davis said the town was trying to make the best of a situation that had been forced upon it.
"If we do nothing, the traffic is coming," he said. "If we do something, the traffic is coming due to the court’s decision."
Councilman Peter Tobasco said nothing has been written in stone in regard to the construction of the proposed road at Jacob Drive. He said the council is trying to find a solution that will work for everybody.
"We hear you tonight," he told the residents. "We want a win-win situation."
Gannon said he would review the Hidden View litigation and attempt to determine if Howell can raise another legal issue.
It was also decided that Vena will meet with members of the community to discuss another option to provide access to Hidden View.