BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
JACKSON – Planning Board members have begun hearing an application that proposes the construction of 493 homes on Grawtown Road. It is estimated that if Grawtown Estates is built, Jackson will see the arrival of about 1,725 new residents.
Orleans Home Builders, Bensalem, Pa., wants to subdivide 300-plus acres in a Regional Growth zone into 497 lots on Grawtown Road near Bowman Road and County Route 527-528. There would be four open space lots, and the development would be serviced by municipal water and sewer.
Planning Board Engineer Douglas F. Klee said there would be one access point to Grawtown Estates from Bowman Road and two access points from Grawtown Road. No variances are requested, but the applicant is seeking several waivers, including a waiver from a physical impact analysis.
Alan B. Dittenhofer, the board’s planner, said there is a proposed density of 1.62 units per acre. He said lot sizes will be about 10,000 square feet (approximately a quarter-acre).
William A. Stevens, the engineer representing Orleans, said 100 lots will be 85 feet by 120 feet and 393 lots will be 75 feet by 120 feet. He said the applicant is proposing four open space lots which will be dedicated to Jackson and will contain four storm water management ponds and some recreation areas.
Attorney Ray Shea, representing Orleans, asked how deep the stormwater management ponds are.
Stevens said the depth of the ponds will vary between 6 and 8 feet, and the larger ones will have a depth of 16 feet. He said no fencing is planned for the stormwater management ponds.
Shea said the plan would be to treat the ponds the same way as the rest of the Toms River corridor.
Stevens showed freshwater delineation lines and a 600-foot freshwater wetlands buffer consistent with the Toms River overlay map.
He said the applicant will provide a 48-foot radius where 40 feet is required for a turning radius in the development’s cul-de-sacs.
Stevens said the applicant is required to set aside a minimum open space area.
“The applicant is setting aside an open space of 157 acres where the ordinance requires 30 acres,” he told the board. “The applicant is required to set aside a minimum of 15 acres for recreation, and almost 44 acres are being set aside. There will be a district park of 43 acres where 10 acres is required, and 44 acres of playgrounds where 3 acres are required by ordinance.”
Stevens also noted there will be a 50-foot buffer along Grawtown Road, a 140-foot buffer along Bowman Road and a 600-foot buffer for wetlands areas.
Environmental scientist Ian M. Borden, representing Orleans, said there is a dirt path on the property and it is the applicant’s intention to connect that path, in a future application, to Grawtown Road and Bowman Road for a walking path.
Borden said the property has undergone a long-term study to located endangered species such as timber rattle snakes, pine snakes and owls. He said no such endangered species were found within the 300-plus acres.
The Grawtown Estates project, if approved, will be built in phases.
“We are seeking a 10-year approval for this application,” Shea said. “The longer you give a preliminary approval, the less likely someone will rush in and build as quickly as possible.”
Township Council President Angelo Stallone, who sits on the board, asked who has the right to the 600-foot buffer and whether it would dedicated to the
township. Shea said Jackson would be the beneficiary of the buffer zone.
Traffic Engineer John Rea, representing Orleans, said he prepared a regional traffic study based not only on this application, but also taken during different seasons on Grawtown Road, Whitesville Road and Veterans Highway.
“I think we have overestimated the amount of traffic on these roads,” Rea said. “Some have recommended improvements including signal lights and widening of Whitesville Road. That will be started this year.”
The intersection of Grawtown Road and Route 528 will be signalized and improved as part of the developer’s agreement with Ocean County, Rea said. The Bowman Road intersection will be improved, but not signalized.
When the meeting was opened to questions from the audience, resident Marie Hausner asked if there would be a change in the 50 mph speed limit on Bowman Road.
Rea said Bowman Road is a county road and the answer would have to be determined by the county. He said he did not know if there are plans at this time to change the speed limit.
Resident Tomasina Holmes Tom said, “[If] each home has two cars, 1,000 cars coming out of one development, how can you fix it with only one or two traffic lights?”
Rea said Tom was correct in saying there would be about 1,000 vehicles in Grawtown Estates, but he said traffic studies are done at peak hours and the studies show one trip per home at peak hours.
“People leave and arrive back home at different times,” he explained. “There is also traffic at other hours during the day.”
Tom questioned whether there would be fencing around the stormwater management ponds.
“You don’t want to put up fencing,” she said to the applicant’s representatives. “Are you concerned that children who run around or cross the street can fall into this lake? You said one part of the lake is 16 feet [deep].”
Rea responded, saying, “Do we fence the streams, the bay, the reservoir? They are not artificially restrained. If these basins need protection, then we have no objection.”
Before ending the meeting, the board voted 9-0 to deny waivers for a physical impact analysis, a specimen tree analysis and soil borings.
The applicant agreed to do soil borings for each proposed residential lot.
The public hearing for the Grawtown Estates application is expected to continue on May 21.