Lakewood developer Moshe Mendlowitz has just closed on a construction mortgage of $5 million to finance construction of 100 new homes on Cross Street near Massachusetts Avenue, FAA News has learned.
Ocean County officials have inexplicably granted massive leeway which will speed up the construction of these homes, which are adjacent to where land has already been cleared for 72 additional new homes.
Back in 2014, Mendlowitz, under the applicant name Yeshiva Gedola of South Jersey, received approval from Lakewood Township's Planning Board for an Educational Campus at 411 Cross Street, north of Massachusetts Avenue. This campus included a 3 story yeshiva building, a gymnasium building, a mikvah, 3 multi-family campus housing buildings, and 5 townhouses.
Under the Township's Educational Campus ordinance, this entire campus, including the residential apartments would need to be owned and developed "only by an institution of higher education and not by or in partnership or in other arrangement with any investor group, construction company, a not for profit entity or any other third party." The Ordinance specifies that an eligible "institution of higher education" needs to be "a not for profit institution of higher education that is a not for profit entity that is fully accredited and licensed by the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education of the State of New Jersey and one that offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees and is devoted to higher education and no other forms of education." Additionally, the Ordinance requires that the housing units on campus must be "proportionate to the educational facilities and that are intended only for faculty and students who will attend or staff the institution's educational facilities and that is adjoining to or within 500 feet of faculty and student housing so as to create a unified campus setting."
Subsequently, in July 2018, Lakewood's Township Committee adopted Ordinance 2018-35 which says: "In all Residential Zoning districts, any tract for which a complete application for a Planned Educational Campus has been filed with the Lakewood Planning Board... re-approval for development of that tract shall be conditionally permitted in accordance with the provisions of the R-7.5 District."
In other words, a developer who previously filed a complete application for a Planned Educational Campus may now resubmit for single family homes on 7,500 sq foot lots or duplexes on 10,000 sq foot lots.
Subsequently, on November 24, 2020, Mr. Mendlowitz presented plans to the Township Planning Board to develop a portion of the previously designated Educational Campus with 60 duplex units and 1 single family home.
Despite that the subject site is located within the R-20/12C Residential Cluster Zone District, these duplexes on lots of 10,000 sq feet and 60 feet wide were permitted under the 2018 ordinance.
As shown in the maps below, this application is for homes along the currently unimproved right-of-ways of Lewin Avenue, Beaver Street, Trudy Lane, Nassau Street, and Nussbaum Avenue, off of Cross Street. All these road would be paved with 32 foot wide cartways, which will be dedicated to Lakewood Township as public roads, with curb, sidewalk, landscaping, and street lighting.
The board conditioned the approval on the development including an open space lot for recreational use.
Soon there after, on January 5, 2021, Mr. Mendlowitz presented plans plans to the Planning Board to develop an additional portion of the previously designated Educational Campus with 40 duplex units.
This application is further in the woods, and, as shown in the maps below, is only accessible once the roads of the first development are constructed.
All together this is 101 duplex units.
When the Ocean County Planning Board originally granted contingent approval to these two applications on January 19, 2022, the contingencies included a major condition that the applicant submit a copy of the CAFRA permit or a Jurisdictional Determination letter from the NJDEP.
NJDEP rules for the CAFRA-zone in Lakewood require a CAFRA application in "a development... that would result, either solely or in conjunction with a previous development, in a residential development having 75 or more dwelling units." Although each application on its own had less than 75 units, because they would "result... in conjunction with a previous development, in a residential development having 75 or more dwelling units," the County required Mendlowitz to seek a CAFRA permit.
CAFRA permits are costly and take multiple years, so by the County determining that these developments require a CAFRA permit, and withholding advancing County approval until a CAFRA permit is submitted, the County effectively placed a major stumbling block in the way of this development turning to fruition.
However, subsequently, as previously reported here on FAA News, at the urging of Glenn Lines of NewLines Engineering, the County magically retracted their requirement for the applicant to submit a CAFRA permit.
This move has helped considerably speed up the development process. The application for 40 homes has completed resolution compliance before the Lakewood Planning Board and has also met the contingencies of their Ocean County Planning Board approval. The Township's Zoning Officer also issued zoning permits for these homes.
Approvals on the 60 other homes remain pending.
Mr. Mendlowitz has just now secured a $5 million mortgage to finance the construction.
These homes are adjacent to the corner of Cross Street and Massachusetts Avenue where Yehuda Dachs also received an approval for an Educational Campus and then converted it to an application for 72 duplex units and a shul. Ocean County officials also did not require a CAFRA permit for these homes.
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1 comment:
B"H, we need more home built. Otherwise prices will continue to climb
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