Attorney, board debate impact of development
Talk centers on number of children who will live in new homes
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

JACKSON - Representatives of RG-2 Associates are seeking approval from the Planning Board for a General Development Plan (GDP) which can protect an applicant from zoning changes which may occur over a long period of time.

The GDP calls for 193 homes, with a 10-year build-out, to be built on Grawtown Road near East Veterans Highway, across the street from the proposed Grawtown Estates development.

Previously, four of six subdivisions received preliminary approval. Eventually, all subdivisions may be tied together after the remaining two subdivisions receive approval.

Demographic and environmental issues were the main focus of the May 21 Planning Board meeting.

Attorney Ray Shea, representing RG-2 Associates, said he wanted to return to testimony given by Richard B. Reading, whose demographic methodology had been questioned.

Reading said the method he used was developed for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Office of Smart Growth.

Shea said the applicant was using a figure of one child per home.

Board member Robert Hudak disagreed with the way the numbers were calculated and said, "You can't tell me that all of these brand new houses, each with three or four bedrooms, will have less than one child. That's not the real world. I believe it will be three or four times that."

Reading said those are the numbers that are used throughout the state by all professionals

Hudak said those are not real numbers for Jackson.

Agreeing with Hudak, board Chairman Ken Bressi said, "This is the third largest township in the state. This is a 10-year build-out. Those numbers do not work for Jackson. I have a real problem with the number of kids."

Bressi said there will be an impact on Jackson's schools and property taxes.

"If one house has two school children and the next house has two preschoolers, those two homes have four children, but they average one public school child," Shea said. "We do not concede that there is anything of error contained in the report."

Bressi responded, saying, "State formulas do not work in every town."

"You have your opinion," Shea said. "We reject that opinion. I'm guided by law and not opinion."

"In my opinion, I don't agree with the numbers. Sometimes the laws have to be looked at more closely," Bressi said.

Shea said that is not a justification for viewing the development application unfavorably.

Planning Board attorney Greg McGuckin said Shea was correct in his assertion and noted that would not be a reason to deny the application.

Board member Blanche Krubner asked Reading if he had ever visited Jackson, looked at the infrastructure or talked to anyone in the community.

"Not specific to the preparation of this report," Reading responded, "but I visit Jackson weekly."

Krubner told Shea she believes the Municipal Land Use Law is written by developers for developers with support from the state Legislature.

Krubner said the facts and assumptions presented by Reading do not necessarily coincide and only some situations apply to Jackson. She said even if the figures presented by Reading were used, they would still be adding to a

school population that is not yet properly housed in school buildings.

"You may be creating a larger crisis," said Krubner. "Not all the towns in central New Jersey have the same kind of population growth and I insist that your analysis is not credible in its entirety."

During the public portion of the meeting Garth Michaels, of Grawtown Road, said she has four children and her neighbor has three children. She said there are a lot of children on Grawtown Road.

"It appears that it costs at least $7,000 to educate a kid in Jackson and if your taxes are $7,000 and you have more than one kid, each house gives you more than a $7,000 deficit," Michaels said. "The other taxpayers, the senior citizens, are going to have to pick up the balance. We can't build schools fast enough in Jackson. So I question your studies. I don't know anybody with just one child. Everybody has multiple children and they're all riding the buses with $3 a gallon diesel fuel to get to school."

Beth Duke, of Whitesville Road, said she has three children in a three-bedroom house. Duke questioned the age of the formulas being used.

Reading said the data was from homes built in 1990 to 2006.

Stan Goldman, of Spyglass Drive, said there is not enough room for the current students who attend public school in Jackson.

"To my knowledge right now there are 42 trailers (portable classrooms) in the Jackson school district," Goldman said. "The additional 200 homes will just add an additional burden to Jackson. The monies don't equate and the residents will have another tax burden."

Moving on to another area, Ian M. Borden, an environmental scientist and president of Property Development Services, Toms River, prepared an aerial display to show the relationship of the trail system on both sides of Grawtown Road and how they relate and interact with one another.

Borden described the trail systems, the sidewalks and the natural swales that surround the trail system.

Shea said currently there are four approved subdivisions with 148 units. There are two more tracts to be considered.

"The environmental commission is in possession of the environmental impact statement," Shea said. "We attended a meeting with them on May 15. Additional information will be supplied to them for their examination."

Environmental commission Vice Chairman Steve Fowler said there are still several concerns to be addressed.

Shea said the applicant will meet with the environmental commission on June 18.

Resident Peggy Kaplan asked if there will be sidewalks on both sides of the streets. She was told the sidewalks will come from the right of way and the developer will pay for that.

A representative of RG-2 Associates will attend the Planning Board's July 9 reorganization meeting and be given a date when the application will continue to be heard by the board.