Monmouth County commissioners send Colts Neck housing project back to Planning Board
FREEHOLD - Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas A. Arnone has directed the county Planning Board to review the environmental impact of a controversial 360-unit apartment complex to be built on Route 537 in Colts Neck.
Nevertheless, Arnone warned Thursday that the county government had limited legal authority to act in such matters and he suggested that the Board of Commissioners would be unlikely to interfere in what he described as a local zoning issue.
Earlier this year, more than 1,800 people signed an online petition asking for a more in-depth review of what impact the proposed Colts Neck Manor would have on drinking water in Monmouth County. Their concern is Colts Neck Manor’s planned location to the Yellow Brook stream, which feeds into the Swimming River Reservoir.
The Colts Neck Planning Board has already signed off on the project, though reluctantly, which will result in a 15-building complex with a clubhouse and a pool at Route 537 and School Road East. The plan is part of the township’s affordable housing settlement with Fair Share Housing Center, a statewide housing advocacy group. The developer of the project, Kushner Cos. LLC, is seeking an amendment to Monmouth County’s Water Quality Management Plan to allow for a package plant — a prefabricated wastewater treatment system. Colts Neck does not have its own municipal water and sewer services.
The Monmouth County Board of Commissioners must sign off on the amendment before it goes to the state Department of Environmental Protection for final approval.
Before an audience of about 40 concerned members of the public on Thursday, Arnone said the Board of Commissioners intended to “cross all our ‘t’s’ and dot all our ‘i’s’” before taking a vote on the matter — which was not on the agenda of Thursday’s bi-monthly meeting of the board.
Related: Colts Neck approves 360-unit apartment complex, with some regrets
Former Colts Neck Mayor RoseAnn Scotti, who has been leading the charge against the project, contends that the future affordable housing complex “has the potential to cause a public health emergency the likes of which Monmouth County has never seen,” she told the Asbury Park Press.
Scotti said organizations such as the Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters had joined Colts Neck residents in opposition to the project and that if it is permitted to go forward “without further environmental testing, it will set a precedent for other projects like it and our water supply will be contaminated.”
More: Drinking water danger? Monmouth asked to shoot down plan for 360 Colts Neck apartments
Before taking a position on the matter, Arnone said the county Board of Commissioners would rely on the expertise of its professionals to determine whether there was any merit to the issues the residents from Colts Neck and their surrogates had raised.
“I think I speak for my commissioners, when I say the questions that are on there, that were asked of us — quite frankly none of us could answer, because we’re not obviously engineers here,” Arnone said.
The site previously received a water quality management plan amendment in 2006 when it was slated for a 48-townhouse project.
Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Affordable housing plan in Colts Neck NJ goes back to Planning Board
