HOWELL — After five years of work, the developer of the Monmouth Athletic Center (MAC) is one step closer to achieving his goal.
Thomas J. Coan, managing director of the MAC, came before the Howell Township Council on Feb. 1 to ask the governing body to recommend that his Fairfield Road property be included in the township’s wastewater management plan.
Plans for the MAC call for the construction of six buildings on a 45-acre tract on Fairfield Road, about 1,300 feet south of Route 33.
The MAC is proposed to include an adult health club and wellness spa, a 25- meter pool, a rehabilitation pool, a weight room for adolescents, four basketball courts, a suspended indoor track, a baseball field, 12 batting cages, a football field, a soccer field and a multipurpose field.
The plan to build the athletic center has previously faced zoning issues. The most recent concern has been sewage, Coan said, because the Monmouth County Planning Board and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection are reassessing sewer service area maps.
The area to be developed by the MAC was previously in two zoning districts: 22 acres were in a Special Economic Development (SED) zone and 23 acres were in an ARE-6 Rural Agricultural/Natural Resource Protection zone, Coan said.
In 2009 the entire 45-acre parcel was zoned SED.
“What doesn’t happen when you change the zoning, the sewage map doesn’t change,” Coan told the council.
The delineation that still exists for the sewer service area would only allow the developer to install wash basins, toilets and urinals in the front area of the property, but not in the rear portion. If the developer wanted to install bathrooms in the rear portion of the property, he would have to put in a septic system.
“If we were doing massive work to bring sewer service to this site and to Route 33 to benefit those business owners, should we be burdened by having to spend additional funds to put in a commercial septic system in order to create enough convenient locations for bathrooms on the property?” Coan asked the council. “We would really prefer not to have to use portable toilets.”
He sought a change to the sewer plan that would give him permission to place bathrooms anywhere on the parcel. He said he does not want to have to install a septic system at the rear of the property near wetlands.
“It’s really just a matter of including an entire property,” he said. “The county has no issue with it. It’s really a common-sense situation.”
Planner Fred Heyer explained that the area in question was once a very sensitive environmental area with no access to water and sewer and none intended, and that is why it was designated as it was. But, he said, a significant change occurred when sewers became available.
Once sewers become a fact, “the genie is out of the bottle,” Heyer said.
Heyer said it is his understanding that sewers are coming to that area of Route 33, and he said other properties that are on the same road will be using sewer extensions. Once that happens, he said, the township needs to reassess the area.
“If the sewer is going to be in the front of the [MAC] property anyway, it doesn’t make sense, in my opinion, to withhold an endorsement for allowing this property to be in the wastewater planning area,” Heyer said, noting that adjacent properties are included in the sewer service area.
Councilwoman Pauline Smith said she was concerned that if the MAC project goes through, Howell would lose control of its zoning and it would affect a goal of maintaining Howell as a rural area.
Councilman Robert Nicastro said he believed that if the entire MAC property is included in the sewer plan and the MAC does not get built, the property could be used for high-density housing.
“This is the precise time we should be looking at this,” Councilwoman Susan Schroeder Clark said, adding that the county will ultimately make the decision on whether to include the entire property in the wastewater management plan.
“I personally think this [the MAC] is a good project for the citizens of Howell,” Mayor Robert Walsh said.
Walsh, Clark and Deputy Mayor William Gotto recommended that the council endorse the project.
Nicastro and Smith opposed that recommendation.
The council will send a letter of endorsement to the county for further review and a public hearing.
“We are pleased,” Coan said in a followup interview. “We appreciate the council’s support and look forward to getting this done and working with the council in the future. I hope we can make this happen now.”
George Krebs, second vice president of the Howell Chamber of Commerce, said the MAC will be a good ratable for Howell.
“This was a primer on how tough it is to do business in Howell,” Krebs said in reference to the years the developer of the MAC has spent in the planning and approval process. “At the same time we fight businesses that want to come in, we are cutting services to our residents and raising their property taxes.”
Krebs said the chamber wants to promote reasonable business growth in addition to expanding existing businesses in the township.