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BREAKING NEWS: JACKSON ZONING BOARD RECONSIDERS & APPROVES SWANBORNE'S SHUL APPLICATION


After previously denying a shul application, Jackson Township's Zoning Board tonight reconsidered and granted Preliminary and Final Site Plan approval for the shul.



The application, submitted by Swanborne LLC, was represented by Attorney John A. Giunco, Esq. of Red Bank-based Giordano Halleran & Ciesla, Engineer Ian Borden of PDS Engineering, Traffic Expert John Rea of McDonough and Rea Associates, and Architect Brian Flannery.


The Swanborne property is approximately 158.8 acres in area and is located in the Township's Regional Growth 2 Zone ("RG-2 Zone"). It is bounded by East Veterans Highway (Ocean County Route 528) to the north, South Hope Chapel Road (Ocean County Route 547) to the east, and Whitesville Road (Ocean County Route 527) to the south and west.


Back on October 5, 2022, plans were submitted to the Zoning Board for approval for a residential development with 205 single-family detached residential lots, 6 multi-family residential buildings containing a total of 48 affordable residential units, and a 2-story house of worship, as well as recreational areas.


The application sought approval for the Preliminary and Major Subdivision, as well as for the Site Plan for the multi-family residential buildings for the affordable residential units, which required Conditional Use Variance Relief as the Ordinance permits affordable housing units only in attached dwellings with a maximum of 4 dwelling units per building and the application is to construct 8 units per building; and for the Site Plan for the shul which sought variances to permit parking and drive aisles in the front yard setback and buffer area.


At that hearing, the Board voted on and failed to approve by a 4 to 4 vote the preliminary subdivision portion of this Application, resulting in a technical denial of the entire Application.


Subsequently, the developer requested a Reconsideration, contending that "there is clear evidence on the record that the Board was mistaken as to which portion of the application was being voted on." (I.e. They thought they were voting on the shul's Site Plan application when they were actually only voting on the initial Subdivision application). As such, the Applicant sought reconsideration by the Board as a result of this mistake.


As previously reported here https://www.faanews.com/2022/12/breaking-news-after-initially-denying.html on FAA News, on December 7, 2022, the Board agreed to Reconsider their original denial, and they approved the Subdivision as well as the Site Plan for the affordable residential units.


The Board, however, carried the Site Plan application for the shul to a future hearing "to address some engineering concerns."


Tonight, the Board granted the icing on the cake - Preliminary and Final Site Plan approval for the proposed shul.


The Site Plan submitted is for construction of a 2-story house of worship with 8,226 sq feet of building area and associated parking areas. The main congregant area contains 6,800 sq feet.


The proposed shul includes a Shabbos mikva and a kiddush room in the basement.


The plan provides 136 off-street parking spaces, which conforms to Jackson Township's requirements of 1 space per 50 sq feet of "main congregant area."


The original application required a variance for parking in the front yard. To make the application more palatable to the Board, the applicant revised the application to eliminate this variance.


The Board conditioned the approval that the driveway be revised to a right in / right out only.







The Zoning Board has also agreed to schedule a Special Meeting next Wednesday, January 25, 2023, for a Reconsideration of another shul application. The shul is managed by Mordechai Hirsch of 26 Whitesville Road, LLC.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What was the vote totals for approval?

Anonymous said...

It was a unanimous vote