Fate Of 60-Unit Drum Point Complex Determined At Brick Hearing

BRICK, NJ ? For three hours Thursday night, the Brick Township Board of Adjustment listened as residents shared their concerns about a proposed 60-unit complex at 100 Drum Point Road.

They spoke of parking issues that already exist in neighboring Drum Point Village, of issues with heavy congestion on Drum Point Road.

"It took me 90 minutes to get to Lake Riviera Middle School for my son's concert," a woman who lives in Waterside Gardens, near the east end of Drum Point Road said.

"What happens in the event of an evacuation, like during Sandy?" a man said. His home in Shore Acres flooded during Sandy in 2012. He along with thousands of residents were forced to evacuate unexpectedly when the Atlantic Ocean breached the barrier island at the Mantoloking Bridge, sending several feet of water into the streets and homes along the east end of Drum Point and Mantoloking roads late at night.

Crowded schools, emergency response, and even the potential effects of investors buying the townhomes instead of families all were raised.

And in the end, the Board of Adjustment agreed with those concerns and voted unanimously to deny the approval for the project at 100 Drum Point Road.

After board chairman David Chadwick cast the final vote to deny, and announced the project had been rejected, elated cheers took over the room from residents who believed the board was not hearing their concerns.

The project proposed by 100 Drum Point LLC was to have included three-story townhome buildings and a single apartment building that would have provided 12 units of affordable housing to meet Brick Township's need to provide affordable units.

But townhomes are not a permitted use in the village zone that encompasses much of Drum Point Road.

The village zone was created to "revitalize older commercial areas" in the township but at the same time "maintain neighborhood character and community," Chadwick said, reading from the ordinance.

All of the members of the board said they felt the proposed complex would not maintain that character.

John Jackson, the attorney for the developer, argued in his closing statement that the additional traffic from the complex was not a big deal, dismissing residents' concerns and trying to counter them by saying the opinions of the professionals should hold more weight.

One resident pointed out that the traffic engineer providing those assurances for the 100 Drum Point Road project was the same one who had insisted the Wawa on Route 88 would not cause issues.

"We see how that turned out," the man said.

Heather Cohen, who had started a petition more than a year ago opposing the project, said she sits on the homeowners association board in Drum Point Village, which has multiple parking lots and more than 60 spaces above the required minimum.

The complex still has parking issues that cause fights among neighbors so bad they had to establish a parking committee to address them.

The proposed project had used garage parking as part of its count of required parking spaces, a point multiple residents said was not realistic, citing the size of vehicles that would be too long or too tall for the residential garages.

"No one parks in their garages," one man said, adding that while he does, he's unusual.

Cohen said it was something an HOA would not be able to enforce.

Jackson also argued that the affordable housing component was an important reason to approve the project.

Brick Township recently reached a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the New Jersey Builders Association, the Fair Share Housing organization and a resident to address affordable housing needs in the township. While the state had said Brick Township should provide 366 units, township planner Tara Paxton said an analysis of vacant land in the township that she conducted showed the town is 90 percent built out, and the number the town must provide was significantly reduced, to It must provide 29 units.

Paxton said the township will have to come up with a zoning overlay that provides "reasonable opportunities" for developers to build the housing and to show a good-faith effort on the town's part to not be exclusionary.

The affordable housing component did not outweigh the concerns about traffic, about parking that already is happening along Drum Point Road, and about crowding in the schools.

"It narrowly meets the criteria" for a positive impact on the town, one board member said.

Parking, traffic and the potential issues with evacuation in an emergency all weighed heavily as serious negatives, the board said.

"It's a big safety issue," one board member said.