The 360 rental units proposed to be built on 20.2 acres of a 39-acre property on the border of Colts Neck and Freehold Township could be an environmental disaster.
The intense development which includes an underground (under a paved parking lot) sewage treatment plant is in an environmentally sensitive area and could have an impact on the aquifers that are the heart of the water supply for all of Monmouth County.
Consequently, it has caught the attention of the Sierra Club, which will be weighing in once the application reaches the public participation segment in which all citizens are invited to express their concerns.
The Colts Neck Planning Board, thus far, has conducted the meetings on this development via Zoom.
I personally feel it is highly discriminatory to conduct such meetings via Zoom because many people do not have the technological know-how to access Zoom.
Additionally, under COVID-19 emergency regulations, it was mandated that to comply with the Open Public Meetings Act a public body had to choose a venue that could accommodate the number of people that could reasonably be expected to participate.
One would assume, then, that the Open Public Meetings Act dictates at all times that a venue must be provided that could accommodate the amount of people reasonably expected to attend.
I urge the Colts Neck Planning Board to conduct the public hearing portion of this application in a venue suitable to accommodate the hundreds of people who have expressed interest.
Rose Ann Scotti
Colts Neck
