CAFRA Permit Denied For 3,862-Unit Heritage Minerals Proposal

MANCHESTER, NJ — The state Department of Environmental Protection has said no to yet another application from Hovsons Inc. for a residential and commercial project at the Heritage Minerals site off Route 70.

On Thursday, the DEP issued its denials of a CAFRA permit and a Freshwater Wetlands permit, nearly seven months after it requested more information from Hovsons to show how it was complying with the requirements that apply to the 7,000-acre site.

The 23-page denial of the permits for the proposal to build 3,862 residential units plus 40,000 square feet of commercial space says the project still fails to meet several requirements, including addressing stormwater management, protecting certain endangered and threatened species and traffic impact and air quality, that were brought up in March when the DEP requested more information from Hovsons.

At that time, the project called for 4,000 units of housing including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. The project also would include a clubhouse and recreational facilities, the DEP letter said. But following a public meeting in February, and a deficiencies letter from the DEP in March, Hovsons reduced the proposal to 3,862 units.

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 7,000-acre site, 3,000 acres are protected under the Pinelands Protection Area. The remaining 4,000 acres fall under the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act, which governs proposals to build developments in environmentally sensitive areas of New Jersey. Under a lawsuit settlement reached in 2004 between Hovsons, the township and the state Pinelands Commission, roughly 1,000 acres that already were disturbed were set aside for development. The agreement included approval for roughly 2,450 units.

However, Hovsons has been trying for the last four years to get approval for more dense development on the site. So far, it has not succeeded.

The current proposal was roundly panned at a public hearing at Manchester Township High School in February, with concerns about traffic impacts on Colonial Drive, which would be a main road in and out, and the already heavily traveled Route 70, high on the list. The DEP ordered Hovsons to submit a revised traffic impact and air quality study.

In Thursday's letter denying the permits, the DEP said Hovsons' updated traffic and air quality study was flawed because it contained "inaccuracies" in some of its data that prevented the DEP from verifying its conclusions. It also relied on expectations that modifications to traffic signal timing, road widening and other changes would be approved by the state Department of Transportation, among other entities, the DEP said.

The plan to use Colonial Drive South as a main access road for the proposed development would add 14,000 vehicle trips per day to that road alone, the DEP said, citing Hovsons' traffic study, and the proposal included nothing to mitigate that.

"The large scale development of the Heritage Minerals/Hovsons property would result in significant and adverse traffic impacts," the DEP said. "Although the applicant is proposing to make improvements to some roadways ... they have not provided confirmation that the necessary roadway improvements would be permitted or completed" or that they would even mitigate the added traffic, the letter said. "Further approval to widen certain roads is wholly uncertain at best and could affect threatened and endangered species habitat."

In each instance, the letter said the application "does not yet" meet the requirements, but seemed to leave the door open for changes that would meet the requirements.

The full document follows.

NJ DEP CAFRA permit denial for Heritage Minerals proposal by Karen Wall on Scribd

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