Planning board applicant takes case to state court
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON- The Planning Board will not hear additional testimony on a General Development Plan (GDP) proposed by RG-2 Associates at this time because the matter is now the subject of litigation.

Speaking at the Feb. 4 meeting of the Planning Board, Chairman Kenneth Bressi said, "The applicant (RG-2 Associates) has filed suit in state Superior Court and we did receive a copy of the complaint and the application will not proceed. No date has been set for the court hearing and no action will be taken until we hear back from the court regarding this application."

Attorney Gregory McGuckin, who represents the board, said the fact that a lawsuit has been filed "divests the board of any jurisdictional matters. The next step will be to hear this in Superior Court. We have 35 days to file an answer."

At the Aug. 20 board meeting, the last appearance for RG-2Associates, three sets of votes were taken by the board on the GDP for the area of Grawtown Road and East Veterans Highway.

In two votes to deny the application - which has six residential subdivisions - there were not enough votes to deny the plan.

Following that a motion was made to approve the GDP and that was approved in a 5-3 vote.

However, after the board approved the GDP on Aug. 20 things came to a standstill, according to attorney Ray Shea, who represents the applicant.

Shea said the board refused to memorialize the resolution - the final step taken by the board in the approval process - because the Pinelands Commission had not certified Jackson's GDP ordinance for non-age restricted housing.

"Then the Pinelands Commission certified the ordinance and I came back," Shea said. "I told the board the ordinance had been certified and I proved that it was certified."

Shea said the board members informed him that they had received a letter from administrators at nearby McGuire Air Force Base which said the U.S. Air Force wants certain restrictions implemented related to the development of the homes.

"I'm not going to participate in that," Shea said. "The board members said they were going to open the public hearing and make us do that. So I said we would not participate."

No date has been set for a hearing in the matter.

A GDP protects the applicant from zoning changes which may occur over a long period of time.

Since the plan now calls for 193 homes with a 10-year buildout, across the street from the proposed Grawtown Estates development, the applicant came to the Planning Board to seek approval for its GDP.