MILLSTONE — Although the public hearing on the issue won’t take place until Dec. 10, a proposed 85-unit Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) development along Route 33 drew criticism from residents at the Nov. 12 Planning Board meeting.
Township Planner Richard Coppola said the township’s latest COAH obligation is 169 units. While other, smaller projects are planned throughout the town, the 85-unit development would be located in the township’s Planned Commercial Development zone at the corner of Route 33 and Bergen Mills Road.
The development would include commercial uses near the front of the property and housing in the rear and scattered throughout the site, according to Coppola. The development would require a sewage treatment plant, he said.
Due to the number of people in attendance at the meeting, Chairman Mitchell Newman allowed a 15-minute comment period on the township’s Housing Plan Element and Fair Share Plan, which has to be submitted to COAH by Dec. 31. If the township does not file the plan, it could fall subject to a builder’s remedy lawsuit that could bust zoning, according to Coppola. The 15 minutes stretched to over an hour as homeowners living near the proposed COAH site stepped up to the microphone.
Former Mayor Evan Maltz said the owner of the 32-acre property presented the governing body with a similar development plan in 1999.
“The moment we allow this, the application is filed,” Maltz said. “[The developer] has been sitting on it for years, waiting for a zoning change.”
Maltz said the area has very poor police protection and unacceptable police and fire response times. Such a development would put “85 more families in jeopardy,” according to Maltz.
Maltz also said that the headwaters of the Millstone River are located on both sides of the property, and that houses in the area have an extremely high rate of septic failure. In his view, the township should spread COAH housing throughout the community. He said that residents in his development knew the Route 33 tract would not remain farmland forever, but thought it would be a commercial, not residential, property.Maltz recommended putting COAH housing on the Route 537 corridor.
Jim Whitney said his house would be “worth nothing” if the 85 COAH units are built nearby. Elaine Vrabel said the land in question has a pond and thousands of trees.
‘I don’t understand why it would be a good property to develop at all,” she said, stressing its environmental sensitivity. “Why can’t we preserve a property like that and build on something flat?” she asked.
For Jeff Smith, putting up such a project “would change the look of this town in a very visible way,” since thousands of people drive by the site every day on the Route 33.
Coppola said it is not easy for the township’s COAH work group, which consists of Coppola, Mayor Nancy Grbelja, Deputy Mayor Robert Kinsey, Township Administrator James Pickering, Township Attorney Duane Davison, Township Engineer Matt Shafai and Donna Rose, of the Monmouth County Housing Alliance, to come to grips with the 85-unit concept plan.
“I indicated there was no other way we could do it,” Coppola said. “I knew wherever you put in a large development, people would be upset. It happens every time.”
Coppola said the sewage facility would be sealed and unable to expand. Coppola also noted that that the project requires a willing landowner, which there is in this situation.
Grbelja said the town has done everything it could to discuss its new COAH obligation with the state Department of Community Affairs, which oversees COAH. The township has even joined a lawsuit with municipalities in similar situations with COAH development. Noting that Millstone is the home of headwaters of five watersheds, Grbelja said the lawsuit involves other rural, environmentally sensitive municipalities.
“We hope we will be successful in the lawsuit, and reduce our COAH obligation, but we can’t just go on and say we aren’t going to submit a plan,” she said.
Grbelja said no one likes the plan, but if the township does not submit a plan, “we will be screwed in every way we can.” She alleged that COAH’s plan for municipalities is not based on facts.
“It’s the most absurd, stupid plan that has ever been devised,” she said.
Township officials decided to use a larger room to accommodate the public at the Dec. 10 hearing. The meeting’s location will be announced on www.millstone.nj.us A letter for residents to send to Trenton protesting the township’s COAH obligation is also posted on the Web site.