BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
WEST LONG BRANCH — Deal Yeshiva Academy’s proposal to construct two outdoor pools has been rescheduled for a public hearing before the borough’s Planning Board March 1 at 7 p.m.
Though the controversial application by the private school at 200 Wall St. had originally been scheduled for Feb. 8, board members present at the meeting agreed to carry the application for another three weeks.
Within that time period, school representatives are expected to present a revised building plan to the borough for review by the town’s professionals, board Chairman Joseph Henry said.
The application was remanded to the board by the N.J. Superior Court, Freehold, which last fall overturned on appeal a use-variance approval previously granted to the school to allow construction of the pools.
The private academy, which houses prekindergarten and kindergarten students, had sought to build the two new pools on its corner lot facing Monmouth Road.
The Deal Yeshiva’s building is a conditional use in a neighborhood-commercial zone located on a triangular piece of land between Wall Street, Locust Avenue and Monmouth Road, borough records show.
A group of neighbors of the private school successfully appealed the board’s decision stating that the two pools would create excess noise and traffic and prove detrimental to the area.
On a separate matter, proposed revisions to the borough’s master plan that would rezone three separate, targeted areas solely for the construction of age-restricted housing will be presented to the board sometime this spring, Henry said.
Henry and planning consultant Tom Thomas, who is crafting the changes to the town’s master plan, had hoped to present their ideas at the board’s March session. However, those plans have been postponed until further notice.
“We’re still working on it,” Henry said. “It’s a long involved process.”
At the request of borough officials, including Mayor Paul Zambrano, Henry and Thomas they are seeking to modify the master plan to accommodate developers of market-rate, housing communities limited to empty-nesters at least 55 years of age.
No school-age children would be allowed to reside in those private, age-restricted communities, which Zambrano has said would generate property tax revenue without adding to the borough schools population or draining municipal services.
Construction of age-restricted housing even in areas now zoned commercial could be accommodated either by revising the master plan or by creating an overlay zone allowing for development of such communities.
A total of about 34 acres at three separate sites are under consideration as age-restricted housing zones.
The defunct Frank’s Nursery and Crafts site on Monmouth Road, which measures about 10 1/2 acres, the nearly 6-acre Shaheen Farm located off Norwood Avenue, and the West Long Branch Golf Range, a 17-acre site at routes 71 and 36, are the three chosen redevelopment locations, Henry has said.