involves $1.2 million
for open space fund
Proposed deal
involves $1.2 million
for open space fund
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — The township’s Open Space Trust Fund is expected to get more than $1 million under the terms of a legal settlement with a developer whose application to build 99 age-restricted units was rejected 15 months ago.
The settlement with Wall Township-based Jerald Development Inc., as announced on Thursday night during the Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting, will instead allow for the construction of 66 age-restricted units rather than the original 99 units.
Those 66 units, which Jerald had initially proposed building on a 33-acre site adjacent to the Arbors development, will instead be transferred to The Crossings at Old Bridge retail/residential center planned for the northeast corner of Cottrell Road and Route 516. The township’s Planning Board approved a general development plan for that complex, also proposed by Jerald, on Nov. 12.
Meanwhile, Jerald will transfer ownership of one of the lots it had expected to build in its upscale adult community over to the township for municipal purposes, the settlement states. Jerald also will attempt to obtain the title for a second lot from its current owner in order to also transfer that land to the township for municipal purposes.
If Jerald cannot acquire that title within 90 days of a consent order anticipated to be issued in early March, the developer will pay $200,000 to Old Bridge and be released from further liability for that lot, according to Jerome Convery, the Zoning Board’s attorney.
The additional open space funding of $1,080,000 comes from Jerald’s offer to contribute $30,000 for each of 36 housing units that the developer could have constructed on the tract of just over 36 acres.
The settlement, which the Zoning Board approved unanimously, means the township and developer no longer have to meet in New Brunswick for a trial scheduled to begin March 5, said Jonathan Heilbrunn, an Old Bridge lawyer representing Jerald.
In January 2003, Heilbrunn announced he had filed an appeal on Jerald’s behalf following the board’s November 2002 denial of the developer’s use variance application to build Nobility Crossings at Old Bridge.
At the time of the denial, the board cited the possibility of increased traffic emanating from the upscale community of two, three-story buildings of stacked condominium units.
In addition, board members stated that Jerald’s witnesses failed to show undue hardship and an overwhelming need for the age-restricted community proposed for the north side of Cottrell Road between Phillips Drive and Spring Hill Road.
A two-story clubhouse, a swimming pool and 15 detached, two-story patio home units were also included in Jerald’s plans, according to architectural drawings shown during a series of hearings in 2002.
The 36-plus-acre site is located in a residential R-20 zone and is partially in the municipality’s designated Town Center Zone, Heilbrunn said.
However, the settlement ensures that the acreage will not be developed for residential or commercial purposes once it is in the township’s hands, Zoning Board Chairman Kiran Desai said.
Under township ownership, the land can legally only be developed for municipal purposes such as another township building or recreational space, Desai explained.
However, because the settlement monies are going into the township’s Open Space Trust Fund, the land will now be preserved for that purpose, he said.
Desai described the settlement as "fair" and stressed that placing the 66 residential units at the planned Crossings complex will provide a customer base for any retail businesses there.
"This is a win-win situation," Desai said. "The neighborhood had opposed it. They will be happy."
"You will need more people to sustain the businesses at the Crossings," he added.
Records in the township’s Planning Department show that in 1996, Jerald received a use variance for Whitney Estates, a non–age-restricted residential development consisting of 41 townhouses and seven single-family homes.
The developer never carried out those plans and instead proposed the age-restricted Nobility Crossings in April 2002 as a more desirable alternative to single-family homes that would have added children to the school system or drain municipal services.