The League of Women Voters has long supported low and moderate income housing
policies as well as protections for clean drinking water.
The Fair Housing Act and the State Planning Act, passed together and legally linked, established how to build affordable housing without endangering public health and critical environmental resources.
In particular, the league is concerned about the increasingly threatened Swimming River Reservoir on which approximately 300,000 northern Monmouth County residents rely.
In 2016 the courts took over the process of enforcing obligations under the Fair Housing
Act and they are no longer considering the protection of drinking water or flood prone
areas.
The proposed Colts Neck Manor on Route 537 in Colts Neck clusters 15 buildings with 360 apartments and accompanying structures, such as a package sewage treatment plant, on
approximately 20 elevated acres of a 39-acre site.
This creates 60% impervious cover (roads, buildings, etc.) on the developable portion of this lot. The remaining acres are comprised of steep slopes, wetlands and a Category 1 tributary to the Swimming River Reservoir.
Sewage waste water from 360 apartments, in addition to storm water, presents a flooding
challenge and possible contamination of well water supply and the adjacent stream
feeding the reservoir.
Many questions remain. Those who get water from New Jersey American and the Swimming River Reservoir are encouraged to learn more, attend and comment at the next and final Colts Neck Planning Board meeting, Dec. 1 at 6:30 p.m.
Go to https://www.colts-neck.nj.us/administration/boards/planning-board/ for a zoom link and access to all documents on the Colts Neck Manor application.
Sharon Steinhorn
President
LWV Western Monmouth
Barbara Chaudhery
President
LWV Greater Red Bank Area
Evelyn C. Murphy
President
LWV Southern Monmouth County