TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—A second public Planning Board hearing on the 44-unit inclusionary development planned for Van Emburgh Avenue was postponed after its Aug. 18 hearing was cancelled.
As of press time, no new hearing date had been announced. The next Planning Board meeting is Sept. 1. Planning Board Secretary Grace Kalish said that both parties were working to set a new hearing date. She said she did not know why the Aug. 18 hearing was postponed.
Next scheduled to testify are applicant architect Rob Larsen and traffic engineer Betsy Dolan.
The development includes seven affordable units on site as well as two single-family market rate homes and was approved by the Township’s 2015 affordable housing settlement.
Though it was not clear why the Aug. 18 session was cancelled, the nearly three-hour first hearing on Aug. 4 raised a number of questions regarding tree replacements required under the township’s 2:1 replacement ordinance, traffic concerns, fire vehicles’ emergency access to the site, privacy concerns of nearby homeowners and safety concerns regarding traffic and pedestrian mobility.
On Aug. 4, Mayor Peter Calamari said that he had been told by Planning Board Attorney Louis Lamatina that he should recuse himself from any vote on the application due to his vote in 2015 in favor of the affordable housing settlement while serving as a councilman.
While noting his recusal at the Aug. 9 council meeting due to his vote in favor of the local affordable housing settlement, Calamari said “It infuriates me that people in remote reaches of government have the authority to usurp well-established local zoning laws in communities that they are not familiar with and probably have never visited.”
He said that one of motivations for becoming mayor was to help maintain the Township’s “single-family quality of life we all enjoy here.”
Under the state’s Fair Housing Act, approved in 1985, most municipalities are required to provide their “fair share” of affordable housing units for low-income and moderate-income residents. Already, three rounds of affordable housing compliance have occurred, with a fourth round due to start after July 2025.
The original Mount Laurel decision to require towns statewide to zone for a fair share of affordable housing was decided by the state Supreme Court in 1975. The new requirement was added to the state Constitution in 1985 by approval of the Fair Housing Act.
On Aug. 4, the applicant, Franklin Court Management LLC, of Roselle, presented testimony from its engineer and got questions and comments by board members and a half-dozen residents.
Applicant engineer Michael Pucci, of CPL Partnership, Matawan, went through multiple questions raised by Board engineer Paul Azzolina on Aug. 4 (available online under “PB Documents”) about the number of trees requiring replacement for both complex driveway construction off of Van Emburgh Avenue and at two single-family homes on Fillmore Drive.
Pucci said the site plan was prepared under his direction. He said there is 130 feet of frontage along Van Emburgh Avenue and that the project has received “conditional approval” for a driveway on Van Emburgh from the county. Van Emburgh Avenue is a county road. The complex and two homes will be located on a 15.6-acre tract.
Pucci noted the multifamily complex would include 90 parking spaces, including 19 outdoor spaces and 71 indoors. He said state residential site improvement standards, or RSIS, requires 88 spaces for the 44-unit complex.
He said the land is zoned AA for single-family homes, but that the multifamily development was approved by the township’s affordable settlement.
Residents appeared to question traffic impacts, population increases, new students’ impacts on schools and taxes, snow removal, pedestrian safety, and even maintenance of open spaces on site post-construction.
One of several Fillmore Drive residents expressing concerns noted the Township was “a small town” with a high quality of life and stressed traffic studies were needed “when you increase the number of residents eight to 10 times.”
Dharmendra Sharma said then, “We are being sold down the line… common sense tells me this is going to be unlivable at the cost of our lives,” referring to increased traffic hazards. He cited privacy and ecological concerns raised by the new 44-unit complex, which also adds to property taxes and increased children in schools.
He urged board members to “protect our quality of life.”