By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – With an eye toward providing affordable housing for seniors, the Freehold Township Planning Board has moved to grant preliminary major site plan approval to an applicant with a plan to build a three-story apartment building on Business Route 33 near an entrance to the Freehold Raceway Mall.
At a meeting on April 6, board members directed their attorney to prepare a resolution of approval for PIRHL Acquisitions LLC, Wemrock Senior Living. The resolution will be voted on at a future meeting of the board.
The plan passed muster with board Chairman Richard Gatto and board members Leon Bruno Jr., Mayor Lester Preston, Ronald Kirk, Kevin Asadi, Apryl Kurtz, Rob Kash and Robert Shortmeyer.
Attorney Clint Allen, of the firm Archer and Greiner, Haddonfield, said that before any construction can begin, the applicant must still obtain approvals from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, because of the access from Route 33, and from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, because of environmental conditions on the 7.3-acre property.
Wemrock Senior Living is proposed as a three-story building that will consist of 67 age-restricted apartments (58 one-bedroom apartments and nine two-bedroom apartments) to be made available to people who have a low or moderate income as defined by state and federal guidelines, according to testimony presented by engineer Jay Kruse, representing the applicant.
The property was formerly the location of a landscaping business, Kruse, said.
The apartment building will total 69,000 square feet and 68 parking spaces will be provided for residents and guests. The site will include storm water management facilities, sidewalks, landscaping and lighting, Kruse told the board and members of the public.
When asked about the number of parking spaces later in the meeting, representatives of the applicant said five or six additional spaces could be provided as parallel parking spaces along the entrance drive. The board made the extra spaces a condition of approval.
The apartment building will be served by public water and sewer service, according to the testimony.
The property is in a planned adult community overlay zone and an apartment building is a permitted use in that zone, Allen said. On behalf of the applicant, he asked for and received a waiver from a requirement to construct a sidewalk along Route 33.
The parcel is along Business Route 33 eastbound, between Wemrock Road and Cardigan Bay Lane, which is an entrance road to the mall. The property is bordered by woods, the mall and the Freehold Hebrew Benefit Society cemetery.
Glen Steinberg, a representative of the cemetery, asked several questions during the public comment portion of the meeting, all of which were addressed by the board and the applicant.
“We surveyed our tenants and no one objected” to the apartment building, Steinberg said.
Lara Schweiger, representing the developer, said it is unlikely the residents of any apartment will have two cars, and she said some residents may not have one car, in making the case that 68 parking spaces will meet the needs of the building.
Maurice Rached, a professional traffic operations engineer, testified that the 68 parking spaces to be provided meets the requirements of Freehold Township’s code.
Rached said he determined the apartment building will generate one trip to or from Route 33 every four to five minutes and he said that number is within acceptable limits.
No one from the public objected to the affordable housing application. The applicant still needs approval from other agencies and will have to return before the board to obtain final major site plan approval.
Gatto said the proposal enhances Freehold Township’s master plan and he said affordable housing is needed in the community.
By a unanimous voice vote, the board members moved a positive resolution for the Wemrock Senior Living project.
