New data released from the 2010 U.S. Census will guide local officials as they work to update Sayreville’s master plan.
The Planning Board devised a first draft of the borough’s land use goals at its Sept. 7 meeting, taking into consideration the demographic changes from the past decade. Borough planner John Leoncavallo said the new data will be used for determining zoning districts and will influence borough policy issues.
“The real problem was, we were using the 2000 Census, which is a decade old,” Leoncavallo said. “We had some estimates from 2006 and 2007, which were not far off from the numbers that came out.”
According to recently released numbers, Sayreville’s population has reached 42,700, only slightly higher than recent estimates. Of more interest to the board is the percentage of residents over 54 years old, which is now 24.1 percent. Planning Board Chairman Dr. John Misiewicz said the board will be better equipped to argue for age-restricted housing with the release of this data.
“When we hear an applicant, we can go to the census numbers and say, ‘We have 24 percent of our population at 55 years or older, so we don’t need more market-value housing,” he said.
Misiewicz said the board will seek future development projects geared toward middle-aged residents and seniors. For the time being, however, there is not much taking place in the way of construction planning. With the economy in a downturn, Misiewicz said development has ground to a halt.
Planning Board members are now waiting for commercial applications, particularly at the former National Lead site. Bass Pro Shops, an outdoor recreation store, intends to open a 200,000-square-foot retail store in the former industrial area, which developer O’Neill Properties has dubbed The Point. But the board has yet to receive an application for its approval.
“We were told they want to be open by December 2013, but we’re not hearing anything. We don’t have a clue what’s going on there,” Misiewicz said.
With no applications to hear, the board has time to review the borough’s long-term land use goals. Leoncavallo said the borough’s plan includes balancing different types of housing, growth within the community, economic vitality on Main Street, and the development of waterfront property, among other objectives. Leoncavallo said the borough will focus on redevelopment opportunities instead of on undeveloped land, since most of it is wetlands.
“We want to start a fire for some new development to replace older ones,” he said. “The Point is a perfect example of an old, obsolete use generating into something exemplary for commercial and residential development.”
The proposed land use goals to be included in the revised master plan must undergo revisions before final approval by the Planning Board and Borough Council.