Jackson looks to swap land with religious school developer
JACKSON - Four private religious schools, once planned for Leesville Road, will instead be built on the eastern side of town, near the Lakewood border, if the township council approves a unique land swap agreement with the developer next month.
The Jackson Township Council on Tuesday unanimously introduced an ordinance permitting the town to exchange a series of small parcels, about 46 acres total, along White Road for the 35-acre Leesville Road site where developer Mordechai Eichorn, through his company Bellevue Estates LLC, had proposed a four-school complex that would serve up to 2,850 students from the town's booming Orthodox Jewish population.
If the land swap is approved by the council on Feb. 14, Eichorn will get a total of 43 acres across dozens of small lots on White Road, between Bellevue Avenue and Maplehurst Avenue, backing up to the Lakewood border.
"We feel it's the best fit, and the developer thought it was a better fit. It was mutual," Mayor Michael Reina said.
Community leaders have said there's a need for private schools, as the number of Orthodox school children has ballooned in recent years, but any potential school construction had been barred under a 2017 ordinance until an injunction issued last year halted its enforcement.
The original Bellevue Estates location was derided by residents as "epically disastrous and catastrophic" because of the traffic impact. Even Eichorn's own experts didn't mince words: A traffic engineer estimated that the schools would bring an additional 1,500 cars to Leesville Road every school day.
That doesn't take into account the other three-school complex, also owned by Eichorn, the planning board approved in May 2022.
"The traffic on Leesville (Road) would have dramatically decreased the quality of life. The infrastructure couldn't sustain that," Reina said. "Where it wound up, it's like a hand into a perfectly-fitted glove. It's a win-win."
In October, Reina announced that the township was finalizing a deal to purchase the Leesville Road property. Neither township officials nor Eichorn declined to identify the terms of the deal until it was fully agreed to by the parties, though rumors of a land swap persisted for months.
Eichorn could not immediately be reached for comment.
While the nearby intersection with White Road and Cross Street is already a busy corridor, there's already work underway to renovate and widen the roads. The Ocean County Board of Commissioners has earmarked more than $6.5 million toward the project thus far.
In addition to the Bellevue schools, the area will also eventually be home to Oros Bais Yaakov high school, approved as part of a settlement last month that ended a nearly decade-long legal battle.
In addition to Eichorn's developments and Oros Bais Yaakov, there are three other private school projects scheduled for planning board hearings over the next few months, with plans submitted on East Veterans Highway, Farmingdale Road and Chandler Road.
Mike Davis has spent the last decade covering New Jersey local news, marijuana legalization, transportation and a little bit of everything else. He's won a couple of awards that make his parents very proud. Contact him at mdavis@gannettnj.com or @byMikeDavis on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jackson NJ looks to swap land with Orthodox Jewish school developer
