Representatives of Toll Brothers will have to wait until March 5 to present their application to the Cranbury Planning Board for a proposed age-restricted residential development.
A public hearing for the proposed Regency at Cranbury was scheduled for Feb. 13, but was postponed after representatives of the Watershed Institute, an environmental non-profit organization, raised concerns about the applicant’s public notice of the meeting.
“I think the public notice may have been unintentionally misleading. I believe the applicant will have to obtain a variance from the township’s riparian zone ordinance to build what they have proposed,” said Michael Pisauro, the Watershed Institute’s policy director. “If that is accurate, then the public notice indicating that the applicant is not seeking any variances is misleading.”
Pisauro said residents who received the public notice from the developer or who saw it published in a newspaper might be dissuaded from attending a board meeting if they believed the applicant was going to meet all of the municipal requirements.
“Unfortunately, the applicant did not show on their plans the extent of Cranbury’s riparian zone and its relation to the proposed development. These zones are there to protect the health of water bodies and people downstream,” Pisauro said.
The southern portion of the proposed development site is bounded by the Cedar Brook stream, which is part of Delaware-Raritan River system.
Attorney Richard Hoff, who represents Toll Brothers, said he did not see the language of the initial public notice as misleading and said the developer was not trying to hide anything from the public. He said the public notice would be revised prior to the March 5 meeting.
Board members did not take jurisdiction of the application on Feb. 13. That action will be re-evaluated in March.
Toll Brothers has plans to construct a 174-unit age-restricted development at the Protinick property at the corner of Dey and Petty roads. A one-story clubhouse would include a pool, a spa, two tennis courts, two bocce courts and bicycle parking.
The property currently consists of an active farm and contains a single-family home and two accessory structures on the northern part of the site along Dey Road.
In 2016, Cranbury officials entered into a settlement agreement with Toll Brothers as part of an affordable housing settlement.