Breton Woods Homes Proposal Hearing Continued In Brick

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Planning Board hearing on the application to build 59 homes on a 30-acre parcel off Laurel Avenue next to the Breton Woods neighborhood was continued to April after more than two hours of testimony Monday night.

The hearing on the proposal by developer D.R. Horton to build the homes on the parcel owned by Church of the Visitation is scheduled to resume at the next hearing, set for 7 p.m. April 18, again at Civic Plaza.

Much of the testimony Monday focused on the plans for stormwater management in the development, with disagreement between Brick Township's professionals and those for applicant D.R. Horton on the best approach to safely draining rainwater runoff around the homes.

Among the points of contention was the proposal to use a porous pavement on the roads within the development as part of its method of managing rainfall — roads that would be turned over to Brick Township for future maintenance.

Porous pavement is growing in use for handling stormwater on parking lots and other large surfaces, but rarely is used on roads. Porous asphalt is created by reducing the amount of sand used in the pavement, which allows for more spaces between the gravel that makes up the asphalt surface, according to Clean Water Services.

However, that kind of asphalt requires extra maintenance, Brick's professionals said, which is something Brick Township officials were not going to be willing to take on that responsibility.

Brian Boccanfuso, the planning board engineer, said if that measure remained part of the stormwater management, he would not recommend the board vote to approve it.

"That would become a burden on the town to maintain," he said.

The pushback on the porous pavement on the roads prompted an irritated response from John Giunco, attorney for D.R. Horton, who said the developer had spend significant money to revise the original stormwater management plan for the development.

That original plan was for 72 miniature drainage basins, according to the testimony, but the township's professionals objected and the plans were revised. In addition to the porous pavement, the proposal includes five infiltration basins that are designed to collect runoff and quickly disperse it.

Boccanfuso asked Leanne Hoffmann of Hammer Land Engineering, who designed the stormwater management for the site, whether she had ever used porous asphalt on a road design previously, and she said she had not.

Boccanfuso also noted the township has safety concerns about the basins that have to be addressed before the township would approve the application.

Giunco, in frustration over the resistance to the stormwater design, said the developer would just go back to the initial design for the stormwater controls.

"To say you can go back to the previous design is a step in the wrong direction," Bocacanfuso said. The original plans required more than 220 variances, most of them related to the individual stormwater basins.

"The previous design was never approved," he said. As the testimony continued, the decision was made the continue the hearing.

"We are proposing a plan we believe is in full compliance," Giunco said.

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