JACKSON – Planning Board members said they will give representatives of CDR Whitesville LLC one more chance to improve their application or it will be dismissed.
CDR Whitesville LLC is proposing to build a contractors yard that will require bulk storage of building supplies and equipment on a 74-acre parcel on Whitesville Road in Jackson.
Attorney Raymond Shea and engineer Ian Borden represented the applicant at the board’s July 17 meeting to discuss a plan of action to be taken by the applicant regarding existing issues at the proposed site.
Shea said the applicant was before the board “to present a plan of action for the flooding and other conditions that allegedly represent a safety hazard for Whitesville Road” and to address any violations from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Shea told board members he planned to “address or explain to you why we cannot address” the flooding issue.
“Up until now all we have really heard is one of the neighbors who is present tonight and in my view he is as culpable as anybody else in this process,” the attorney said, acknowledging that some harm has been “self-inflicted.”
According to Borden, the applicant received a letter from the DEP in July 2016 with a directive to schedule a field meeting. He said the applicant did not hear back from the DEP until June 2017.
“We are sitting here waiting for the DEP to schedule a field meeting to confirm everything we are telling you,” Shea said.
Board Vice Chairman Robert Hudak expressed his displeasure with the applicant for waiting a year to act on the DEP violations.
“Nobody did anything, nobody followed up for almost a whole year,” Hudak said. “If I was doing something and I requested something I needed from somebody else, I would not wait a whole year.”
Shea denied it was the applicant’s responsibility to pursue the DEP after the initial request for a field meeting.
During public comment, resident David Disconi asserted that Shea’s testimony was “disingenuous to say the least.”
“We did not have this flooding problem until (the applicant’s) driveway had a base coat of asphalt on it. We did not have this problem before a 92-foot-tall mound of dirt was placed at the back end of this property … Now it is my fault and my neighbor’s fault for giving them our front yards,” Disconi said.
According to Disconi, the proposed project would put the road 38 feet from his front door.
Disconi read a letter from the Ocean County Soil Conservation District to CDR Whitesville LLC. The letter lists numerous issues the administrators of the soil conservation district have with the proposed project that have yet to be corrected.
Shea said he was unaware of the letter.
Board members reminded Shea his client was instructed at a previous meeting to report on any and all violations from all agencies, not just the DEP.
“We cannot report what we do not know and we do not know anything about that (soil conservation district) report,” Shea said.
Further consideration of the CDR Whitesville LLC application was carried to the board’s Oct. 16 meeting.
