BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer
MONROE — Stonebridge at Greenbriar, a 946-unit adult community, can be built in full.
The second and final phase of the development, to be located at Federal and Applegarth roads, was approved last week by the Planning Board. The phase comprises of 327 units, which 325 are single-family residences.
The first phase, approved in August, included plans for a total of 619 homes, including 261 single-family residences and 358 duplexes.
Developer Lori Garden Associates will also be extending Federal Road to meet Applegarth Road, forming a four-way intersection at Applegarth, Halsey Reed and Federal roads.
Lori Garden will also install a traffic signal at that intersection when it is complete.
There will be nine stormwater “wet ponds” for drainage purposes, three cul-de-sacs and a clubhouse on the Stonebridge at Greenbriar property as well. The stormwater will be fed into the Cranbury and Barclay brooks.
Board member Joe Montanti asked if the extension of Federal Road will be completed before the units that will border it.
Board member and Councilman John Riggs responded that the homes may be constructed, but no certificates of occupancy, except for those of the model homes, should be awarded before the completion of Federal Road.
Township Engineer Ernest Feist said some of the home buyers wanted sidewalks and others did not. Therefore, the first phase was approved with plans to build sidewalks on only one side of the street.
Board member Peter Lumia said that strict “no parking” regulations must be enforced in the development.
Sharif Aly, the applicant’s attorney, responded that the applicant is not proposing any permitted street parking in the development.
Lumia responded that if the parking regulations are ignored, it will be difficult for emergency vehicles to navigate the development.
“That’s nice you’re not proposing it, but that’s not going to be the reality,” Lumia said. “People are going to park on the street. And if people park on both sides of the street, you’re not going to be able to get emergency vehicles through.”
Aly said that the applicant considered that possibility and plans to make the roads wide enough, at 28 feet from curb to curb, to accommodate emergency vehicles.
The development will be a gated community with a homeowners association.
Local resident Dorothy Sluzas also said that she was concerned for the safety of a resident who lives near the proposed development and routinely backs out of her driveway.
She said that with the increased traffic, that resident’s safety would be compromised every time she left her house, and requested that the developer construct an area on the resident’s property where she would be able to turn her car around before exiting her driveway.
“I know that there’s a way that this can happen, but I’d like to see the developer go on the record to say that they are, in fact, concerned with the safety of the residents that are affected by this project,” Sluzas said.
The developer agreed to build a “K-turn” area for that resident, a concession that has been added to the resolution approving the first phase of the development.
Local resident Gregory Winter said he owns property on either side of the Cranbury Brook, and that any stormwater feeding into that brook will have to travel through his property to get there.
“So that means all the stuff that runs over keeps my property wet all the time,” Winter said. “That makes my whole back [yard] worthless because it stays wet all the time. You’ll turn that into a wetland.”
Aly responded that the stormwater will be led into a detention basin, which will then deposit the water into the brook, bypassing Winter’s property.
“We are taking more than 30 acres of land of runoff and taking it to a detention basin into Cranbury Brook,” Aly said. “So that’s a tremendous improvement to his property.”
Aly added that the 1.5-acre detention basin is in compliance with the ordinance requiring that the basin be able to withstand the runoff from any storm up to a 100-year storm.
Jeffrey Kimberlan said his mother owns property near the brook, and asked how the stormwater runoff would affect that property as well.
Aly responded that the detention basin is built to hold all the stormwater without overflowing, and Kimberlan’s mother’s property should, therefore, not be affected as well.