Monroe seeks out adult communities Planners recommend council change zone to allow senior units

Monroe seeks out
adult communities
Planners recommend council change zone to allow senior units

Monroe Township officials are considering paving the way for planned retirement communities on two separate tracts totaling more than 500 acres.

The Planning Board is expected to support the rezoning of property behind the Applegarth School from regular residential to a planned retirement community zone that would allow for at least 1,000 units. And the board has already taken action on another property that could yield more than 600 age-restricted homes.

The board recommended June 25 that the Township Council rezone a 186-acre parcel bounded by Buckelew Avenue, Mounts Mill and Spotswood-Englishtown roads to allow for more than 600 age-restricted units. Part of the property in question is presently used by the Pine Hill Mine, formerly known as Buck Brothers, which mines sand, clay, gravel and other material.

The age-restricted homes would be built by Toll Brothers, a Pennsylvania-based developer, as part of its Regency at Monroe adult community, which is already under construction on an adjacent site. The additional homes would enlarge the Regency community to include about 1,600 units.

Councilman John Riggs, who sits on the Planning Board, said officials support rezoning the property for several reasons.

The developer, he said, has agreed to help pay for off-site improvements such as the installation of traffic lights at three major intersections surrounding the proposed development: Buckelew Avenue and Mounts Mill Road, Spotswood-Englishtown Road and Buckelew Avenue (which would also be realigned), and Mounts Mill and Spotswood-Englishtown roads, which on June 14 was the site of an accident that killed a 25-year-old Teaneck woman.

The traffic signals would be installed as part of a joint venture between the developer and Middlesex County, which has jurisdiction over all of the roads in question.

A dangerous curve along Mounts Mill Road would also be straightened out at the developer’s expense, according to Riggs.

Another benefit of the rezoning, the councilman said, is that the housing would replace the mine and the 10,000 truck trips it creates per year on township roads.

"It’s always been our goal to get those trucks off local roads," Riggs said.

The councilman said he did not know when the council would introduce the rezoning ordinance.

The property behind the Applegarth School, off Federal and Old Church roads, consists of three parcels owned by two developers, US Home and Renaissance Properties. Both were approached by township officials and asked to consider building a retirement community instead of regular residential housing.

The three properties, comprising about 350 acres, could have yielded from 350 to 400 single-family homes, and one of the properties had already been approved by the board to be built as a 109-unit development called Lori Estates. Officials want to change the zone on the three properties to allow for more than 1,000 age-restricted units and about 40 regular residential homes.

Riggs said the idea is to allow development that will not add too many students to the school system, thereby increasing property taxes. The township, he said, will already have more students coming in from families that move into the two housing developments approved to satisfy the township’s obligation with the state Council On Affordable Housing (COAH).

"We told [the developers] we were not receptive to building that large of an amount of single-family homes, because we have Mount Laurel [COAH-required] housing almost across the street that is under construction and another Mount Laurel development to start on Route 33. And they’re going to provide children and put stress on our schools."

Residents who live in adjacent neighborhoods on Union Valley and Old Church roads asked the board to consider allowing either regular residential housing or open space in the areas surrounding the possible age-restricted community in order to allow places for their children to ride bicycles.

The residents were expected to discuss the matter with the developers and township Engineer Ernie Feist, who will make a recommendation to the Planning Board at its July 26 meeting. The board is then expected to recommend that the council rezone the tract.