By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
PENNINGTON — A proposed 80-unit housing development known as Heritage at Pennington is receiving scrutiny from some neighbors.
A company called American Properties at Pennington LLC wants to build 64 market-rate units on the 13-acre property, which has frontage on West Franklin Avenue and Knowles Street. Thirty-two of the units are described townhouses. The other 32, described as villas, will be age-targeted units. There are also plans for 16 apartments set aside as affordable-housing units in three different buildings, according to information published on the Pennington Borough website (http://www.penningtonboro.org/Plan-Zone-docs/2015/PB-minutes111215.pdf)
Just to the north of the proposed development and adjacent to the property is the Pennington Point community.
Members of Pennington Point Condominium Association had prepared to attend the Pennington Borough Planning Board on Feb. 10 to express their concerns about the new development, but the public hearing on Heritage at Pennington was postponed to March 9.
American Properties is requesting preliminary/final major subdivision and site plan approval and variances from the Planning Board.
Terry Evanko and Carole Allison of the condominium association prepared a statement describing aspects of the proposed development that have residents worried.
“We understand that this development plan offers many benefits for the entire Pennington community; our goal is to work with the entities involved to improve, not prevent, this development,” the statement reads. “We are all eager to insure that this property, perhaps the last to be developed in Pennington, is carefully planned to reflect the values and character we associate with living here and to insure desirable housing for future residents.”
In the statement, the association also conveys its concern over the environmental impact the development would have on the “property’s wetlands and its links to the Stony Brook watershed, which supplies our wells and drinking water.”
The Pennington Point association also wants some changes to the development plan, including the creation of a wider “wetland transition area to continue to serve as a wildlife corridor and habitat.” The association is suggesting a “downsize and redesign” of the storm-water detention basin “by recharging some of the storm water throughout the project site using gravel dry wells even under some portion of the proposed pavement.”
Concerns over building encroachment into a proposed easement, and increased traffic are also spelled out.
“Our other concern is that Woolsey Court, a private drive, not become a thruway for traffic,” the statement reads.
“Our ultimate goal is to minimize negative effects so that this proposed community enhances the environment, protects the wetlands and watershed, provides a well designed mixed housing community for future residents, and is a source of pride for Pennington,” Ms. Evanko and Ms. Allison wrote in the statement from the Pennington Point Condominium Association.
