4,000-Home Plan For Manchester Site Set For Hearing Thursday

MANCHESTER, NJ — A proposal to put 4,000 homes on the Heritage Minerals site in Manchester will be the focus of a CAFRA hearing scheduled for Thursday at Manchester Township High School.

The proposal by Hovsons was submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection last August and would use 1,000 acres of the more than 7,000-acre site that once was home to a mining operation. The property has been the site of proposed development for more than 20 years, though much of that time has been spent tied up in litigation.

The Coastal Area Facilities Review Act hearing notice said the hearing is set for 6 p.m. at the high school, at 1 South Colonial Dr. in Manchester. If the schools are closed Thursday, the meeting will be postponed to Tuesday, Feb. 13, again at 6 p.m. at the high school.

The Asbury Park Press reported the proposal includes townhouses, single-family houses, garden apartments and affordable housing units. Mayor Kenneth Palmer told the Asbury Park Press he opposes the number of units.

The 4,000 homes exceeds the 2,450 units that were part of the litigation settlement reached in 2004 between Hovsons, the township and the state Pinelands Commission, but are fewer than a 6,500-unit proposal floated in 2016 in the wake of a township ordinance that designated part of the tract as an area in need of redevelopment. That ordinance ultimately was vetoed by Palmer.

Initially township officials had considered the proposal on the theory that a 6,500-unit proposal would be reduced by the DEP, but public outcry and negative feedback from state officials led to Palmer's veto.

Palmer last August told the Asbury Park Press that 4,000 residential units is too many for the township, which has roughly 43,000 residents.

The Heritage Minerals site, which Hovsons has owned since 1984, lies along Route 70 and Route 37, and borders on Lakehurst and Berkeley Township. Of the site, 3,000 acres are protected under the Pinelands Protection Area. The remaining 4,000 acres fall under CAFRA, and the litigation settlement designated roughly 1,000 acres of land that was disturbed during the mining operations for development.

The Sierra Club has expressed its objections to the newest proposal, saying it will add nearly 10,000 residents to Manchester and will have a number of negative effects, including resulting in too much water being pumped from the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer and pollution.

"This is a massive suburban city in the middle of one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the country," Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club said. "What they are doing is building a mini Lakewood," he said, adding the development would bring thousands of extra cars to the area.

"This project would require major extension of sewer lines in the Pines and create at least another 2 million gallons of sewage a day discharged," Tittel said.

He said the Hovsons settlement was the result of litigation after the developer's 1996 plan to build 838 single-family homes and 1,200 square feet of commercial on 398 acres that resulted in the DEP denying a CAFRA permit.

The complete CAPRA permit application is available for review at the Manchester Township Clerk's office.

Written comments can be sent to state DEP, addressed as follows:

NJDEP, Division of Land Use Regulation
P.O. Box 420, Code 501-02A Trenton, NJ 08625-0420
Attn: Manchester Bureau Chief

Heritage Minerals site satellite view via Google Maps