BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer
It seems township officials were successful in their pitch before the Brick Planning Board for the New Visions site plan.
During an informal poll of Planning Board members at their June 1 meeting, the township’s application for an age-restricted, luxury senior citizen housing complex to be located off Chambers Bridge Road was unanimously approved. The formal vote was expected to take place at the June 8 public meeting.
New Visions has been proposed for the 23.78 acres behind the township’s main post office that was once slated for a community center. The Township Council rezoned this site as a Planned Multifamily Residential Retirement Community (PMRRC) zone in April.
“We’re glad that it would appear the board will approve our application,” Township Business Administrator Scott MacFadden said last week. “They made several excellent recommendations that we’ll be sure to address in conjunction with the successful bidder.”
Planning Board members said last week that while the township has presented a site plan for New Visions in order to offer a fully approved site to potential developers, they would like to see the eventual developer return before them. The board members said they would like to review the developer’s plans for landscaping, lighting and the recreational area near the site’s proposed clubhouse.
“This is an interesting proposal,” Planning Board Chairman Dan Kelly said. “We’ve been given a general idea. Bottom line is, it’s going to be a plus-plus for the town.”
The site was purchased in 2000 for approximately $2.1 million and proposed for a community center. After the township purchased the Foodtown site on Route 70 in 2003, which has been deemed a more centrally-located site for a community center, alternative uses for the Chambers Bridge Road site were sought.
MacFadden has said that he expects to sell the property for up to $15 million.
“I’m very pleased that it’s going to go through,” said Council President Ruthanne Scaturro, who also sits on the Planning Board. “I think it’s a better use as our traffic expert said.”
The township’s traffic engineer, Mark Kataryniak, has said that with this plan, as opposed to the community center, there will be a lot less vehicular movements in and out of the site.
The access and egress point to and from the site will be at the jughandle coming off Chambers Bridge Road near the post office. There will be 300 units total, split between eight buildings that are all four stories high. The ground floor of each building will be a parking garage. More parking will be located throughout the site and near the proposed clubhouse.
Planning Board members had a few questions for township officials, such as where the trash bins will be located and how many handicapped parking spaces are on site. All the concerns were answered by Commins and the other professionals at last week’s meeting.
Now that the Planning Board is expected to approve the township’s proposal, Township Council members will be left to determine if the site should be sold through sealed bids or by entering the redevelopment process and using the Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, program. MacFadden said he expects to meet with the council’s Business and Finance Committee about this soon.
“The feedback from developers wasn’t encouraging,” MacFadden said. He added that a final decision had not been made, but he hasn’t found what the township’s attorneys have said on the matter promising either.
“I think the whole redevelopment portion of it … I think we’re still looking into that for that piece of property,” Scaturro said.
The township’s attorneys have given the council differing opinions, but Scaturro said “we haven’t made any decision on that yet.”
Councilwoman Kathy Russell, a Democratic contender for November’s mayoral race, said she would like to see the property sold through sealed bids and the revenue used as a tax stabilization fund or to pay down the township’s debt. When asked if she would like to see any of the revenue used to fund the construction of the community center, Russell said, “We have to see how much money comes in and determine that.”
Councilman Stephen Acropolis, the Republican mayoral candidate, has said that he supports creating a tax stabilization fund. He said that residents may be more willing to pay for a community center if their tax increases are kept at a minimum. Acropolis added that corporate sponsorships could be sought to help construct the community center.
Ed Mueller, a local newspaper publisher who is running as an Independent for mayor, said he still believes there will be an increased amount of traffic on Chambers Bridge Road.
“I’m very much against them selling that land,” Mueller said. “We have an awful lot of traffic there, why we’re adding more, I don’t know.”