By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
CHESTERFIELD — A plan to build 228 single-family houses has been preliminarily approved and will continue its way through the application process, said Planning Board Secretary Linda Wills this week.
The three-night hearing wrapped up on Oct. 27, and the next stage will be final site plan approval, said Ms. Wills.
Fred Hardt, the township Planning Board attorney, said that the final site plan approval is likely to take months.
The application from Chesterfield LLC was restarted in October after it met with opposition when it was introduced earlier this year. Mayor Larry Durr, who serves on the Planning Board, had sold some of his Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) credits to the developer and was not able to take part in the discussions. However, while he had not participated in those discussions he had still been physically present at the table.
There also had been an issue with the audiotapes of the previous introduction of the application, said Mr. Hardt last month.
The proposed houses would be on a 96.9-acre lot, and the application also would include a few commercial units that would have a total of 44,970 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, with apartments above.
This development would place approximately 2.19 units per acre, and is located between Route 528 and Chesterfield-Crosswicks Road under the TDR program.
Two residents filed a suit against the township in October, asking the board to “set aside or vacate” the TDR credits, according to the Burlington County Superior Court clerk Donna Mazzanti.
Ernest Liptak and his daughter, Pam Liptak, who reside directly across Old York Road from the proposed development, filed a suit against the Chesterfield Township Committee, the Planning Board, and the developer of the project in Burlington County state Superior Court on Oct. 20.
Ms. Liptak and their lawyer, Jeffrey Baron, of Baron, Riefberg, and Brennan, asked the Planning Board and the developer several questions about the proposal at the Oct. 21 Planning Board meeting.
Ms. Liptak raised several questions concerning light and noise that would likely be right across the street from her home if the building plan is approved.
”Our house has stood in that location since 1793, and the developer has never reached out to quell any qualms that we may have had about this development,” she said at the second hearing.
A hearing for final site plan approval has not yet been scheduled.

