BRIELLE — The Brielle Planning Board voted to approve the Mumford Homes affordable housing settlement agreement at the June 10 meeting.
The borough’s affordable housing attorney, Jeffrey Surenian, said, “Part of the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan that your planner, Kendra Lelie, put together, that you adopted, involves this Mumford site, which is the subject of the settlement agreement and spells out how the site will be developed, consistent with the Housing Element of your Master Plan.”
As a part of the third and fourth round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan that was endorsed by the council at the June 9 council meeting, (see related story, page 1), the proposed 25-unit Roger Mumford Homes townhouse development will include four affordable units — two will be family rental units and two others will accommodate seven special-needs bedrooms — on the 6.7 acre site at 704-708 Rathjen Road. The plan, still in the conceptual state, must eventually be reviewed by the planning board.
According to Surenian, the property is associated with a builder’s remedy lawsuit by Roger Mumford Homes at Brielle. Of the 25 units, 21 will be market rate and four are designated for affordable housing.
During the meeting, the board took comments from the public on the Mumford Homes site.
Resident John R. Tassini said, “The site is bordered by Highway 35, and Highway 35 provides entrance and exits for other similar developments such as Berkeley Square and Brandywine. If this goes forward, instead of funneling 25 to 50 vehicles onto Rathjen Road, which is a fairly narrow street, it should be on Highway 35.”
Tassini continued and said, “Rathjen Road, Schoolhouse Road and Rankin Road are already fairly congested with schoolchildren walking and riding to school and this will endanger them.”
Resident Sarah Flynn commented, “We bought our house because we love Brielle and we want to keep the integrity of it…the woods right now are beautiful, they are tranquil, they are peaceful and they give back so much to our community. And yet, I feel like there is no tree that is going to survive this. To me, there are foxes and deer and all the animals that live there, where are they going to go?”
Resident Samantha Clark said, “I see the massive amount of pedestrians and I don’t know if you see it everyday like I do. There are three homes on my side of Rankin (Road) and two on the other and just between those five houses there are 11 children that live there…that is a lot of children to add 50-plus cars to come in out of. Schoolhouse and Rankin are major running club hills. Not only does our elementary school have its cross country team train up and down that hill, Manasquan High School comes and trains on that hill, I’ve seen CBA up and down that hill…the pedestrian traffic, I feel like has not been considered.”
Prior to discussion on the settlement, board member Jim Stenson stated that he would recuse himself from the discussion and left the dais and sat in the crowd. The remaining board members in attendance — Corinne Trainor, Jay Jones, Karen Brisben, Dan Turak, G. Kevin Callahan and Councilman Eliot Colon — voted unanimously to approve the settlement agreement.
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