Overflow Audience Halts Brick Planning Board Hearing On Breton Woods Homes Proposal

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Planning Board was forced to halt a hearing on a proposal to build more than 50 homes at a site off Drum Point Road on Wednesday when the application drew an overflow audience.

The application by developer DR Horton to build the homes on property it aims to purchase from the Church of the Visitation has prompted protests in front of the church, with parishioners and neighbors urging a halt to the sale.

Wednesday night those neighbors and parishioners turned out in force. By shortly after 7 p.m. the meeting room was at capacity, business administrator Joanne Bergin told Bernard Cooke, chairman of the planning board.

But as the board moved through preliminary business and started to hear testimony on the project, more people continued to arrive. With a crowd standing in the hallway unable to be in the room to participate, Cooke halted the hearing about 7:40 p.m.

The hearing is scheduled to resume at 7 p.m. on March 21, with the Planning Board set to meet in the township Civic Center, 270 Chambers Bridge Road, in a room that accommodates a much larger audience.

The larger venue is necessary because planning and zoning board hearings are quasi-judicial proceedings and they must be able to accommodate everyone who has an interest in speaking and asking questions.

The announcement that the hearing was being halted prompted cheers from the audience, many of whom have been speaking out against the church's plan to sell the property and the proposed development since they were first notified about the DR Horton plan last summer.

A petition to stop the development, started by Ryan Gittler-Muniz, has garnered more than 5,700 signatures.

Brick Township Mayor John G. Ducey on Tuesday said the township has been trying to talk to the Diocese of Trenton about the possibility of purchasing the property with the assistance of the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust and had not received replies.

For property to be purchased through the Natural Lands Trust, the landowner must submit an application and be willing to sell the land to the county.

On Wednesday afternoon, the diocese said the information about the land sale was presented to parishioners of the church and the township in mid-2019.

In the "Pastor's Message" from the July 28, 2019 parish bulletin, it said the "sale of 34 acres of woodland owned by the parish between East End/Laurel Avenues and Drum Point Road" was being discussed.

"Potential buyers have come forward and we are working with the Diocesan Office of Planning and Construction to obtain the best possible price," the announcement said. "In addition to addressing CAFRA (NJ Coastal Area Facility Review Act) requirements, Brick Township has indicated that we must demolish the old garage by the Rectory before approval of the sale can be considered, which has been completed this week, so I fully expect the sale to go forward."

The sale of the land aimed to provide funding for a "Faith Formation Center" to serve youth members of the church, to supplement money in the church's capital campaign fund for that project, the diocese said. Selling the property also will relieve the church of the $25,000 yearly property tax on those acres, the diocese said.

The church consolidated what was three lots into two — one 10 acres, one 24 acres — in 2013, and discussed the possibility of developing it into a 7,000-plot cemetery, but the cemetery plan never came to fruition. At the time, residents expressed concerns about additional traffic coming and going at the site.

Traffic concerns are high on the list of objections residents have to the homes proposed for the site now.

Residents said after the meeting they were hopeful the time afforded because of the hearing continuance would allow them to more effectively fight the proposal.

"Now we can be more organized," one man said as he departed.

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