By Sunayana Prabhu
COLTS NECK – The developer of Colts Neck Manor is persistent but so are those opposing the project.
Organizations including Sierra Club and a citizens group from Colts Neck have launched an online petition against the proposed development by a company owned by Jared Kushner on a nearly 40-acre vacant parcel along Route 537.
The proposed project is a high-density apartment complex with an on-site wastewater management plant, which several petitioners have said would cause “catastrophic” and “irreversible” water contamination throughout the county.
The petition – which has 1,800 signatures as of April 4 – was launched after the Monmouth County Planning Board recommended amending the Area Wide Water Quality Management Plan (AWWQMP) for the proposed on-site wastewater management at Colts Neck Manor.
If approved, this recommendation would allow the developer to construct an on-site wastewater management plant that could compromise the nearby Yellowbrook tributary, a C-1 stream that feeds into the Swimming River Reservoir which provides drinking water to over 300,000 residents. The petition is addressed to Monmouth County residents who receive their drinking water from the Swimming River Reservoir and Colts Neck wells, and drivers who travel Route 537 between Routes 18 and 34.
Two subcommittees formed under the county’s planning board have been processing the application for Colts Neck Manor’s site-specific wastewater management plant: The Development Review Committee (DRC) and the Amendment Review Committee (ARC).
The DRC was to consider whether or not to recommend the application to the ARC. It was tasked to review the Water Quality Management Plan for the proposed development, review any site issues and ways to mitigate them, or consider denying the plan.
However, petitioners who have been following the DRC proceedings for the past two years said they have been “blindsided” by the proceedings as the ARC took over the application from the DRC and recommended approval without alerting the public.
According to Kip Cherry, conservation chair of the Sierra Club Central Jersey executive committee, the ARC was “secretive” about pursuing this recommendation without alerting the public or even the DRC which he said is still working on environmental, traffic and safety reports for the property. Cherry said the ARC made the recommendation “to amend the quality management plan without getting the results of the work of the DRC.”
The recommendation from ARC is a site-specific amendment that would allow Colts Neck Building Associates, a subsidiary of Kushner Companies, to increase wastewater dispersal from its current limit of 20,000 gallons per day to 71,500 gallons of wastewater daily, exceeding the limit by nearly 300%, according to the petition. This proposal “is contrary to the state plan, is contrary to the Monmouth County Master Plan,” said RoseAnn Scotti, former mayor of Colts Neck township.
The master plan of Colts Neck Township notes that section of Colts Neck is a highly sensitive environmental area. Scotti said developments of “this magnitude” could be detrimental to the community and the environment.
In the past two years, the citizens groups have noticed “some very unusual processes,” Scotti said, which have allowed the application for Colts Neck Manor to proceed through township and county planning boards “without proper environmental oversight.”
But now, Scotti said, the “buck stops with our elected officials and the commissioners because this has come as far as an amendment to the Water Quality Management Plan.”
Scotti and two other Colts Neck residents, Richard Orriss and Marianne Cucolo, who started the online petition, introduced and voiced their opinions about the project during the board of county commissioners meeting April 4. The commissioners have the final authority to approve the ARC’s recommendation or send the plan back for more environmental review.
Scotti said during an interview with The Two River Times that she has appealed to elected officials “to exercise their authority to assure that this project and others like it are subject to environmental laws and regulations designed to protect the public health, safety and wellbeing.”
‘Misuse’ Of Affordable Housing Act
Colts Neck, like all other New Jersey municipalities, is mandated to provide affordable housing under the New Jersey Fair Housing Act of 1985, obligations enforced mainly through lawsuits from the Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Housing that is sold or rented to individuals or families who meet the low-income criteria as per state guidelines is eligible to be designated affordable housing.
Out of the 360 units proposed for Colts Neck Manor, 72 apartments will be designated as affordable housing and 288 apartments will be offered at market rate. The project will include a clubhouse, a pool and the wastewater treatment plant.
In the comment section of the online petition, Vincent Scotti, a Colts Neck resident and husband of RoseAnn, condemned the project as “a classic example of developer’s misuse of well-intended Affordable Housing regulations to supersede and override established local, regional, and state regulations via intimidation. Our elected and appointed officials must not succumb to these threats.”
In 2006, the developer had originally proposed 46 townhomes for the site. In 2015, the Colts Neck Planning Board approved the developer’s plans for 48 upscale townhomes at the site but complications arose due to the township’s lack of water and sewer lines necessary for the project.
By 2021, the application included “major modification and extension of permits” to allow a 360-unit version of the Colts Neck Manor development.
Most of Colts Neck’s single-family homes, farms, schools and limited commercial areas have their own water wells, septic systems and/or individual wastewater treatment plants. This has allowed the township to avoid high-density development to a large extent.
In 2021, the development plan included a waste management plant onsite. In a 7-2 vote, Colts Neck Planning Board members approved the application, noting the possibility of facing builder’s remedy lawsuits if they did not.
A builder’s remedy lawsuit is legal action by a developer to force a municipality to allow higher-density developments than its zoning laws permit. Under the Mount Laurel doctrine, if a trial court determines that a town’s zoning does not satisfy its affordable housing obligation, the court will order a revision of the town’s zoning.
According to a Dec. 9, 2021, Two River Times article, then-planning board member David Kostka, who also chaired the township’s environmental commission, said the decision was “very difficult,” but the township must provide affordable housing through a court-approved settlement agreement that if not met could open the township to builder’s remedy lawsuits.
An ‘Exhausting’ Journey
Marianne Cucolo, the Colts Neck resident who started the online petition said she was “exhausted” by the long-running proceedings which have lasted over a decade.
The environmental survey applied to the original plan cannot be used for the current larger plan as environmental, traffic and safety regulations have all become more stringent since 2006, Cucolo said, also noting nearby Colts Neck High School with “young drivers” and the 5 Points Sports Complex will share this area of roadway.
The on-site underground wastewater plant proposed for the development is “as big as an Olympic stadium,” Cucolo said. Any malfunction of the sewage or wastewater system could create a serious, widespread environmental event, she added.
The petition has appealed to all the agencies involved, including the NJDEP, the county commissioners and other elected officials to consider other issues in the area, including one at Naval Weapons Station Earle with possible contamination of wells from PFAS, also known as forever chemicals. There is also an ongoing investigation into the potential leaching of PFAS into the ground from AstroTurf fields near the proposed Colts Neck Manor development. PFAS cannot be filtered out through the soil and the petition notes the “cumulative effect of these situations would be unacceptable.”
“Clean water is an internationally recognized human right,” Cucolo told The Two River Times, imploring elected officials to take action. “We cannot be guaranteed clean water in any way shape or form with this development.”
The article originally appeared in the April 6 – 12, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
