Marlboro border along
Spring Valley Road
Proposed adult community
calls for 319 residences
Old Bridge plan is near
Marlboro border along
Spring Valley Road
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — It offers easy access to Route 9, represents a clean tax ratable for the township and fills a growing need for senior housing in the area.
Those reasons, according to a presentation made by a planner on behalf of developer SGS Communities, should all be taken into consideration by the Old Bridge Zoning Board of Adjustment as it continues hearing an application to build Village Grande at Pheasant Park, a 319-unit age-restricted community off Spring Valley Road, near Route 9 north and adjacent to the Marlboro border.
Carolyn Neighbor, a planner with Schoor DePalma, Manalapan, told the board at its Jan. 16 meeting that the condominiums would strengthen the township’s tax base and offer desirable housing to an increasing senior population without adding students to the school system.
SGS Communities, based in Freehold Township, is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval as well as bulk variances from the board.
Because testimony presented by Neighbor and another expert witness ran up to the board’s 11 p.m. curfew, the application will be continued on March 6.
If constructed, the complex would consist of 11 three-story buildings holding a combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, according to Mitchell Newman, an attorney and senior vice president for SGS Communities. Prospective buyers would have to be at least 55 years old to reside in the complex, and no school-age children would be permitted to live with homeowners, he said.
Collectively, the units would generate more than $1 million in tax revenue annually, as well as additional funding for the school and fire districts, Neighbor testified. A homeowners association within the community would provide its own snow plowing, road maintenance and landscaping, she added.
Depending on the size of the unit, initial sale prices could range from $130,000 to $160,000, Neighbor said.
In lieu of building state-mandated affordable housing units within the upscale complex, the applicant would make a monetary contribution to Old Bridge’s affordable housing trust fund to help the town satisfy its obligations with the state Council On Affordable Housing, Neighbor added.
While acknowledging the site’s master plan designation as a commercial-office-industrial (COI) zone, Neighbor told the board that based on the projected tax revenue benefits, age-restricted housing would be a better use for the site than office or commercial use.
"It doesn’t work well for (commercial) use," Neighbor said. "It is well-suited to senior housing with the units spread around the existing open space and wetland areas."
Due to the buildings’ three-story, pitched-roof design, the developer is also seeking bulk variances, Neighbor said. One particular bulk variance is needed to construct the three-story structures in the R120 zone, which presently allows for structures up to two-and-a-half stories in height, she added.
Trees buffering the property from the view of motorists on Spring Valley Road would be proportional to the height of the buildings, Neighbor testified.
A second expert, Fred Cocoa, an engineer with Menlo Engineering, Highland Park, testified that an underground parking garage would be located under each of the 11 buildings. Altogether, the community would have 695 parking spots under the complex’s 11 buildings, he said.
In anticipation of the need to hook the proposed community into the municipal water and sewer system, SGS has filed an application with the Old Bridge Municipal Utilities Authority (OBMUA), Cocoa said.
In August 2001, the board granted a use variance allowing for the construction of a multiple-unit, active adult community on the property in question, Newman said.