A new residential development is being considered to be built on the Royce Brook Golf Course.
The potential for 174 housing units will be discussed during a committee meeting on Aug. 11, with the golf course being potentially reduced from a 36-hole course to an 18-hole playing field.
The project would be considered in Phase 3 of the Hillsborough Township Affordable Housing Agreement.
In lieu of that, Hillsborough Township Clerk Pamela Borek indicated that the developers will pay $5.4 million to the affordable housing fund.
The builders have still yet to be determined at this time, Borek said. According to New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel, Toll Brothers is in line to develop the project.
Tittel stated in a press release that the golf course has said that a sale to Toll Brothers would provide “necessary capital” needed to run the golf club.
He also mentions in his press release that the project was originally supposed to be a convention center, but with the sale being flipped to Toll Brothers, it became a residential project, and Tittel is concerned that this will cause more overdevelopment and traffic in the area.
“Rezoning the golf course will increase traffic and overdevelopment. Hillsborough needs to stop this project from going forward to protect the people and environment of the town,” Tittel said in his statement.
He said he feels the proposal is a “complete sham,” stating that there will not be any affordable housing units and that the additional housing will create more pollution and sewer needs that may contaminate the water resources on the property and the nearby D & R Canal.
“This project will increase sprawl and overdevelopment without building any affordable housing. It will increase impervious cover, which means more stormwater runoff and pollution. This could expose the people of Hillsborough and the environment to serious contamination.
“This project will only make things worse, and could pollute the aquifer underneath the property as well as the D&R Canal,” Tittel said.
Borek said the developer will have to follow the environmental requirements to ensure that the water resources on the property will not be contaminated.
The new residential community will be voted on by the Hillsborough Township Committee at the board meeting on August 11.
