Vote on Birch Hill homes
pushed to April meeting
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — Citing the checkered past of the Birch Hill entertainment complex, a planner testifying on behalf of a developer who wants to build 285 age-restricted homes in place of the nightclub described the planned adult community as a "positive ratable."
Roy K. Deboer, a Monroe Township-based land use consultant, advised the Zoning Board of Adjustment recently to approve the housing application submitted by Kara Homes in order to foster a beneficial use of the 55-acre tract now occupied by Birch Hill.
The active adult community of townhouses and mid-rise homes proposed by the East Brunswick-based developer would provide the township with a significant tax ratable without the liabilities now associated with the entertainment complex owned by nightclub impresario Art Stock, Deboer said.
"You have a ratable problem now," Deboer told the all-volunteer board. "The present-day Art Stock property is not a positive ratable."
Given the community’s expected $3 million tax benefit and the absence of school-aged children in any of the homes, the board should strongly consider the application’s benefits, Deboer said.
"There’s no schoolchildren," Deboer said. "It’s a tremendous ratable without the nuisances."
About 527 residents over age 55 would reside in the private, gated complex, Deboer stated. He based his projections on a community impact statement that he presented for review.
"It’s less than two persons per unit," Deboer said.
"We think that this is going to be one of the most prestigious active adult communities in the state of New Jersey," Deboer said.
Deboer’s statements, in which he also cited a need to serve the area’s growing older-adult population, concluded the testimony presented by Kara Homes’ in-house attorney and Executive Vice President Robert McGowan.
With the board’s 11 p.m. curfew already 10 minutes past its limitations, Zoning Board Attorney Jerome Convery advised McGowan that the application would be carried to an April 4 meeting.
Despite the applicant’s conclusion of testimony for the use variance portion, the board still has many unanswered questions regarding the dimensions and density between the units, Convery said.
"It’s unfair to ask the board to consider anything tonight," Convery told Mc-Gowan.
If constructed, 180 of the 285 units will be townhouses and the remaining 105 will be mid-rise houses, according to John Truhan, a civil engineer and licensed professional planner who testified on the applicant’s behalf on Jan. 30.
Plans shown by the applicant at hearings also show that the private community would feature amenities including a 7,500-square-foot recreational center and a swimming pool, a putting green and two tennis courts.
The use variance is needed because age-restricted housing is not permitted in the R-120 zone where the Birch Hill complex is located.
Besides the use variance, the applicant will also need preliminary and final site plan approval from Old Bridge as well as approval from neighboring Marlboro. Five of the site’s 55 acres are in Marlboro.
Other approvals must also come from both Middlesex and Monmouth counties as well as wetlands permits from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), McGowan has said.
The final sale of the Birch Hill property to Kara Homes hinges upon the applicant’s securing of all approvals from the various jurisdictions, McGowan has said.
Stock placed his property, including the 32-year-old nightclub, on the real estate market for $5 million in January 2001.
The nightclub has been alcohol-free since September of that same year because the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) has prohibited Stock from owning a liquor license due to a 1990 horse racing fraud conviction.
The site, between Route 9 southbound and Texas and Marlboro roads, has no municipal water and sewer service.
However, the applicant has met with representatives of the Old Bridge Munic-ipal Utilities Authority (OBMUA) about extending water and sewer lines to the area, according to Truhan.
Although the township’s master plan has placed the Birch Hill site in a commercial-office-industrial (COI) zone, a real estate expert has previously testified that it has little potential as a commercial site due to its poor roadside visibility and difficult market conditions.