Age-restricted housing praised by board members

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

JAMESBURG — The borough Land Use Board has approved the town’s second senior citizen housing development.

The condominium complex, which will be known as Brookside Village, was approved at the board’s June 9 meeting, borough zoning officer Bernie Long said.

The developer, Nicole and Angela Properties Inc., will construct Brookside Village on a 1.71-acre parcel with frontage on Lake Street and Pergola Avenue, Long said.

“The project is very good for the town,” Long said. “It will pay taxes, and it will be only seniors that will have zero impact on the school budget.”

The borough’s only existing age-restricted development, Barkley Village, is also located on Lake Street.

The complex will feature 45 age-restricted units — 21 one-bedroom apartments and 24 two-bedroom apartments.

Federal guidelines for age-restricted communities require that at least 80 percent of the units be occupied by at least one resident age 55 or older.

Individual municipalities, however, have the option to adopt their own ordinance, as long as it imposes stricter guidelines. Municipalities may not pass an ordinance more lenient than the federal law.

Some area towns, such as Monroe, have utilized that option, but Long said the borough has not, and has asked the developer to abide by the federal statute.

The approval required the board to grant a use variance, a variance for parking spaces and a variance allowing the applicant to exceed the borough’s height requirements.

The use variance was required since the area is currently under the borough’s AR (apartment residential) zoning, and the construction of senior condominiums would not be a permitted use.

The proposal includes 76 parking spaces, but a complex of Brookside Village’s size would require 90 spots, Long said.

“We figured that with seniors, there would be [fewer] vehicles,” Long said.

Also, the maximum height requirement for that area is currently at 35 feet, but the proposed complex would be 50 feet in height.

Long said the applicant’s requests were reasonable, the complex will blend nicely with the surrounding area, and the project’s benefits would far outweigh any deficiencies.

“This is very beneficial to the community,” he said. “The drawings of how it’ll look when completed are beautiful. It will be a big asset to the area. A winner all the way around.”

Long said a fiscal impact study conducted by New Brunswick-based consultants Heyer, Gruel and Associates painted quite an impressive financial picture.

He said the complex, which will have its own homeowners association, will yield more than $180,000 a year in tax revenue, and will only cost the borough $103,000 in municipal services, resulting in a $77,000 tax surplus.

“It will be a bigger plus for the town because it will be third-party billing for first aid,” Long said. “So these figures are projected as if it was a municipally exported first-aid squad.

“It’s beautiful, beautiful landscaping,” he said. “It’ll bring up that whole area. It’s a big plus.”