2,450 homes could occupy Heritage tract in Manchester
Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/05/03
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
MANCHESTER -- Nearly two decades of legal wrangling about the future of the 7,000-acre Heritage Minerals site could conclude with a settlement proposed by state environmental officials allowing H. Hovnanian Industries to build 2,450 homes on land zoned for 800 units.
State environmental Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell yesterday touted the settlement as a "smart growth" solution, one that would protect 6,300 acres on the edge of the Pinelands and endangered wildlife, while clustering new homes on 1,000 acres of an old sand mine off Route 70, near Route 37 and Colonial Drive.
"Given the risks of litigation . . . we think it's the best choice for the environment and the community," Campbell said.
The agreement limits development potential on the land, while 6,300 acres of forest "will either be deed-restricted or transferred to state ownership" -- probably the latter, Campbell said.
He said settling the case would eliminate the danger that Hovnanian could win a court order allowing even more homes to be built. But some environmental advocates were skeptical, saying that state Pinelands and Coastal Area Facility Review Act regulations that apply to the site have been thoroughly tested in the courts.
"I don't think this had anything to do with the danger of losing the lawsuit," said Carleton Montgomery of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. "I think they believed that they pulled Hovnanian down as low as he would go."
If the deal holds up, it would end a legal and regulatory tangle that dates to the mid-1980s. That's when prominent developer Hirair Hovnanian acquired the property and proposed building up to 15,000 homes. But he was stymied by state environmental regulators, and finally wound up suing in state and federal courts.
Under the settlement's terms, Hovnanian's company would apply some state Pinelands design standards, such as wetlands buffers, and a bridge and culverts, so that threatened northern pine snakes could safely crawl under the access road during their travels between wooded areas.
Hovnanian Vice President Edele Hovnanian was out of the office and could not be reached for comment late yesterday, according to workers at the company's main office in Tinton Falls.
Manchester Mayor Michael Fressola, a longtime critic of the state Department of Environmental Protection's efforts to settle the dispute, said he will meet soon with other municipal officials to discuss their next course of action. Acting partly to help their neighbors, officials in adjacent Berkeley recently moved to block any new road from their municipality into the Heritage tract.
"I'm very disappointed at (the state officials') action but we still have a number of options," Fressola said, after returning from a meeting in Trenton where he was told of the settlement proposal.
"We still have some control over what happens there," Fressola said. Hovnanian "will still need all their permits, and CAFRA approval. It's not like they can start putting sticks in the ground tomorrow."
"Obviously, there are many other approvals they'll have to get locally," Campbell said. "There will be additional regulatory reviews as the process goes forward," including a public comment period, he added.
Could go back to court
Campbell acknowledged the whole case might end up back in court if the deal goes sour: "There is a continuing risk to both parties that they might not get what they want."
"I thought they had a strong case, and didn't need to settle," said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club, which has been watching the prospect of a settlement closely.
"Does the 6,000 acres (of forest) balance out the 2,400 units?" Tittel asked. "That's a tremendous impact on air and water quality. Getting the land is good . . . but it's way too many units. Twenty-four hundred units would make it the biggest development in New Jersey, in an area that's had too much development already."
The state Pinelands Commission "is on board with the substance of the agreement," said Francis Rapa, a spokesman for the regional land-use and environment board. There will be a public hearing before the DEP and the commission formally accept the deal, he said.
"The clustering of development on the mined area and the dedication of 6,300 acres are terrific things," said Montgomery of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. "But we think the proposal allows too many units. In that sense, we're in agreement with the mayor and council."
Manchester rezoned the area in the early 1990s to limit the tract to 800 homes, and under Pinelands standards, perhaps 1,300 at most could have been built, Montgomery said.
However, the snake protections proposed by Hovnanian look as if they could work, based on a review for the alliance by Rutgers University biologist Joanna Burger, Montgomery said.
"The culverts (planned for the access road) are so large, and there's so many of them, that it will be OK," Montgomery said. "And they'd be surrounded by this wide open land."
