Jackson will undertake review of master plan
Municipal document guides development of community
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON - It's out with the old and in with the new as planners begin to tackle a review of Jackson's master plan, which is the document that guides the development of the municipality.

"This is a doozey of a responsibility for the Planning Board," Planning Board Chairman Kenneth Bressi said at the panel's Jan 7 meeting. "When we took over this board in 2006, most of us here realized there were problems."

Bressi described the master plan as the blueprint of the town. He said it must be updated every six years. Bressi said a review of the plan revealed that parts of it do not meet present requirements and goals in the areas of land use, affordable housing and maps.

Bressi said the merger of nearby U.S. military bases will have an impact on Jackson. Part of the so-called mega-base will be in Jackson.

There may also be changes made in commercial corridors with respect to buffers, he said.

Jackson is about 64,000 acres in size, with about 22,400 acres owned by the township and 31,000 acres developed. That leaves about 11,000 acres that are undeveloped. Part of that includes wetlands.

"This is the last master plan that will [indicate] what the town will be like in the next 20 to 30 years," Bressi said.

Among the issues to be examined are how officials will protect the municipality's current way of life, air quality and environment when it is all getting squeezed.

"As we look at this master plan we will leave no stone unturned," Bressi said. "We will meet with the Pinelands Commission, with the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and we have to protect as much green as possible. The professionals will look at everything we do so this will stand up in court and yet protect the township.We invite the public to participate in this process. It affects everybody in this town, today and in the future."

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Planner Anna R. Wainright, of the firm Remington Vernick and Vena Engineers, Toms River, said the board's professionals will have to take a look at where Jackson is in order to determine where to go with any potential revisions to the master plan.

Wainright used maps to describe how Jackson has been developed to date. She said many parcels have a potential for development in the future. The maps showed vacant land and public land, a portion of the public land includes Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst and the Colliers Mills wildlife area.

"You have to determine where the land uses are changing," Wainright said. "What has changed in the Pinelands and that is what we have to look at."

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In a presentation by Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst Chief Environmental Engineer Dennis Blazak, he said there have been many changes since the base came onboard in 1915. At that time the base was used as an ammunition proving ground.

In 1921 hangar 1 was built and the facility became the first intercontinental airport in the United States. The base was used to support lighter than air flights (dirigibles) from 1921 to 1961.

"Today our mission is to provide support to enhance a number of different groups, Air Force, Army and other federal groups," Blazak said. "There are 7,400 acres. There are two active runways and one 12,000-foot dedicated test runway.We have a whole bunch of buildings and about 300 developable acres."

An overview of the base population shows about 3,300 personnel. The base is the largest single employer in Ocean County.

"The main mission of the base is to get planes on and off of aircraft carriers and all the other things that go along with it," he said.

The planned joint military base (Fort Dix, McGuire Air Force Base and NAES Lakehurst) will be 42,073 acres, with much of the southern portion preserved, Blazak said.

He told the board the military is concerned about development which occurs without considering the consequences of placing that development near a military installation. He said housing is the most incompatible development near a military installation.

"The closer you get to the airfield the more concerned we get," he said.

Blazak presented maps which showed clear zones, where there should be no building at all; accident potential zones, where air accidents are likely to occur; and areas where there will be more noise due to increased use of the runways.

He said people who buy property in this vicinity should be informed about the military installation and the noise it produces.

Blazak also pointed to a possible maintenance yard for the proposed Monmouth- Ocean-Middlesex passenger rail line and the fact that there is a military rail line in the vicinity which could be noisy.

"We want people to be informed," he said. "There will be an increase in air operations from about 8,000 per year up to roughly 80,000 [in the near future] There will be more training, additional helicopters and rail transportation impacts."

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With residential development slowing down, consulting engineer Joe Agustin, of the Alaimo Group, Mount Holly, said this is the perfect time to examine Jackson's master plan. He said the process will take a year to 18 months.

A list of critical issues to be covered includes protection of environmental resources, commercial corridor uses, active and passive recreation, energy conservation and green design, open space (Green Acres), Pinelands Commission (Regional Growth District), New Jersey State Plan (Planning Area Changes), property uses and density, affordable housing, traffic and transportation.

In examining Jackson's tax base, Agustin said that in the past 10 years the municipality added about $1 billion worth of residential ratables, $7 million worth of commercial ratables and $1 million worth of industrial ratables.

"That is not a good balance," he said.

Agustin gave some suggestions for the future. He also looked at the demographics and reviewed the list of master plan elements, land use plan, housing, community design, community facilities plan, circulation plans, open space and recreation, storm water management and recycling.

This is the opportunity to make corrections and an opportunity to make it better, he said.

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During the public portion of the meeting, Helen Henderson, Atlantic Coast project manager for the American Littoral Society, said a large percentage of Jackson's land is in the Barnegat Bay watershed. She asked if there would be any consideration for a master plan element that would include a transfer of development rights.

"If it's legal to do and it will stand up in court we will have a subcommittee look at it," Bressi said.

Theresa Lettman encouraged the board to "take a look at your Pinelands Reserve area. That's the land between the Colliers Mills wildlife management area and Route 528 and we would like to see you come into conformance with the Pinelands Plan (over there). We're very concerned with the amount of development."

Bressi said there will be a meeting with the Pinelands Commission.

"This will be a long process," Bressi said. "Time will not dictate [to us].We will be contacting many agencies … We are going to research every outside agency possible."