Council: Thumbs down on senior housing plan

BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

A plan to rezone a section of East Brunswick to allow for age-restricted housing has been shot down.

During its meeting Monday night, the Township Council voted against a plan to rezone an area off Harts Lane for senior housing. The ordinance, which was tabled at an earlier council meeting, would have changed zoning that currently allows office and industrial uses.

The zone change was considered after developer M. Alfieri, of Edison, proposed a community called Hidden Oak Woods near Harts and Tices lanes. The 55-and-over community would include 396 condominium units mostly in three-story buildings on 41 acres, and the developer estimated it would bring the township $2 million per year in property tax revenue.

The Planning Board recommended the zone change to the council.

Councilman David Stahl told the Sentinel he voted against the zone change because of the density of the housing proposed.

He said that although the age-restricted units would bring tax revenue into the township without burdening the schools, the density was more than what was permitted three years ago when the council rezoned a former industrial area on Main Street for similar housing.

"If it [the proposal] comes back, hopefully it will be with less density," Stahl said.

Township Attorney Michael Baker said the developer would have to go through the entire process again for a zoning change to occur. That would mean once again starting at the Planning Board, then having that body make a positive recommendation to the council, which would again consider introducing and adopting the ordinance.

The council's vote was greeted with praise from Republican Township Council candidate Robert Tagliente, who had criticized the proposal at a previous meeting. At Monday's meeting, he said if the change was made and the developer decided that he wanted non-age-restricted housing instead, the township could be sued if it refused to go along.

In response to a question from Tagliente about whether the developer might sue because the council voted down the zone change, Baker said he does not foresee that happening.

Resident Camille Ferraro said she feels Democrats voted against the change because of the state attorney general office's investigation of the Golden Triangle deal. In that situation, the council allowed for the developer, Toll Brothers, to build non-age-restricted housing after an initial proposal for senior housing.

Republican Councilwoman Christi Calvano said she voted against the change because there are already three senior housing projects in the works in East Brunswick - on Cranbury Road, Main Street and at Ryders Lane and Tices Lane, not far from where this zoning change would occur.

She said she also was concerned with the density that was proposed and the impact on traffic.