ROBBINSVILLE: Planning Board votes to appeal Sharbell case

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — The Planning Board voted 7-1 last week to appeal Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg’s ruling that allowed Sharbell to proceed with plans to convert 150 yet-to-be built senior units to housing for families of all ages.
   The developer’s so-called conversion application for the Gordon-Simpson tract project off Gordon Road had been the subject of five contentious public hearings before the Planning Board in early 2011 before it ultimately was rejected in April. Judge Feinberg overturned the Planning Board’s decision in December.
   Planning Board Attorney Jerry Dasti said Monday that he intended to file the appeal either late this week or early next week.
   Residents and public officials slammed the Sharbell conversion proposal during last year’s hearings, saying it would cause an influx of schoolchildren to a district whose elementary and middle schools already are overcrowded. Voters rejected a referendum in 2010 to build a new school because of the tax impact.
   The Planning Board held a brief closed-door executive session at the end of its regular Feb. 22 meeting, then came back into open session to vote, without comment, on a resolution directing its attorney to file the appeal. The lone no vote was cast by Neil Rivers, who also did not support the denial of the application last April.
   Tom Troy, Sharbell’s senior vice president, said the Planning Board’s action was expected.
   ”I’m not surprised; that’s been the threat all along,” Mr. Troy said Tuesday. “We are certainly prepared to what we need to do, and we’ll see where this goes.”
   Sharbell based its conversion application on a 2009 state law that was designed to help builders faced with a glut of unsold senior housing by allowing them to turn their projects to all-age development as long as 20 percent of the units were affordable for low- and moderate-income families. The law, which since has expired, required municipal land use boards to approve all conversion applications that met certain criteria unless it was shown the project was a detriment to the public good.
   Mayor Dave Fried has lambasted the state law that allowed conversions to occur, saying the statute usurped the town’s Master Plan and the power of local land use boards to make planning decisions. The mayor also has been highly critical of Sharbell for utilizing the law to force the town to accept a project it didn’t want.
   Last week, the mayor suspended work on the Gordon Road pumping station that is needed in order to complete a $2 million sewer project that would have served the Gordon-Simpson development as well as two smaller commercial projects along Route 130 that would have tied into the new sewer lines.
   Mayor Fried said his reason for stopping the sewer project was because plans for a 248-unit assisted living facility for seniors, The Pines at Robbinsville, had been abandoned, and a 400,000-square-foot office/retail complex called Meadowbrook Commons had been postponed by its developer because of the economy.
   When asked about Sharbell’s Gordon-Simpson project, which is expected to use 87 percent of the Gordon Road sewer pumping station’s capacity, the mayor said he would finish the sewer work when “the commercial aspect” of the Sharbell project is ready to move forward.
   The 439-acre Gordon-Simpson project, as approved in 2006, had 265 residential units and a mix of retail and office space. The 265 residential units included 150-age restricted townhouses, 30 single-family homes, 24-market rate condominiums, 60 Project Freedom units for people with disabilities and one small farm with a single-family home.