BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - The Planning Board unanimously granted preliminary approval to a 10-lot subdivision on Rues Road at its July 25 meeting.

Ken Pape, attorney for the applicant, Campusone Inc., which is partly owned by Frank Horzepa, of Millstone Township, said his client had filed an application nearly three years ago, but getting approvals from outside agencies had been complex. He said the Stream Encroachment permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had been quite involved, but that all approvals are now in good order.

Pape said development would consist of 10 fully conforming lots on a 52-acre tract. He said the project does not require any variances.

According to Pape, the engineer designed the site without on-site stormwater basins, but the project still meets the state's new stormwater regulations. He also said there is no evidence of any historic pesticide contamination on the property.

Julia Algeo, the project's engineer, said the property is currently farmed and located on Rues Road, south of interstate I-195. The perimeter of the site is wooded with Doctors Creek tributaries forming the eastern and western boundaries, she said.

Algeo said the subdivision uses the township's lot-averaging ordinance, which allows a 2-acre minimum lot size as long as the average size of all the lots is at least 3 acres. She said the 10 lots vary in size from 2 to 16.4 acres, with an average of 5 acres.

The subdivision has one access road off Rues Road and two internal roadways. Algeo said that 29 acres of the property would be preserved in a conservation easement for the township and the county.

Algeo said the project would not have any curbing or sidewalks, and would have minimum impervious surfaces.

Township Engineer Glenn Gerken asked for the radius in the cul-de-sacs to be expanded from 40 to 50 feet to aid the turnaround of fire trucks and school buses. When Algeo said she could only increase the cul-de-sacs to 45 or 48 feet, Gerken said he thought that would work.

Gerken said the project originally started out with more lots and a series of detention basins, but that the DEP worked out water-quality issues. There are now five discharge points throughout the subdivision, with a small quantity of water going out.

Township Planner Mark Remsa said he is concerned that a number of the septic-system beds are fighting the grade, and that they would need a lot of fill and steep slopes. He said he would like the applicant to re-examine the beds so as not to have to create steep slopes.

Pape said the applicant has not addressed the noise issue from Route I-195.

"What's [there] to say?" Pape said. "It is a residential property along I-195. We will not put sound walls along I-195."

Algeo said the closest house to the highway is 250 feet from the road. She said there will be a landscaping mix of evergreen and deciduous trees along the Route I-195 corridor.

Pape said the applicant would leave woodlands on either side of the entrance to the subdivision.

Board member Barry Wright asked the applicant to conduct a minimal sound test. If the results are not acceptable, he said, more buffering would have to be added to the site.

Pape said houses built on the tract would most likely have installation materials and windows that differed from those in traditional homes to deal with the noise problems.

"It becomes a marketing element," he said. Wright said the people who will be living there won't just stay inside their houses, as they will have 5-acre lots to use.

Remsa recommended using materials such as soil and solid fencing rather than just buffering to lessen the noise impact.

Rues Road resident Joanne Bicknese said that her street is not very wide, and that 10 more houses would affect the volume of traffic. She said the subdivision would adversely impact agriculture in the area.

Bicknese has a goat ranch and horses on her property.

"I am very concerned about the impact on my right to farm based on further residential development," she said.

Mike Brody, another Rues Road resident, said the area was rural and had a particular look to it when he moved in four years ago. He said the road has been compromised because new developments have come in without buffering on the street.

"No one is looking out for the character of the neighborhood," he said.

Brody said the road cannot take even one more house, let alone 10. He also said he has witnessed several accidents there.

"More building with no safety measures is a huge mistake," he said.

Pape said that the results of his client's traffic study indicated that the 10 houses will generate 125 trips per day. He said there are no problems with sight visibility, nor are there recommendations to reconstruct the roadway.