Jones Lang LaSalle


Zoning changes approved
Thursday, May 25, 2006
By KRYSTAL KNAPP
Staff Writer

EWING -- The township council has approved zoning changes that pave the way for a 235-unit condominium complex on Lower Ferry Road and a 54-unit complex on Parkside Avenue.

After more than two hours of presentations from planning officials, comments from lawyers for the developers and questions from the public Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to amend the township's land development ordinance, changing the zoning from industrial in one case and office park in the other to make way for the projects.
The Parkside Avenue property, the former headquarters of New Jersey Network, has been vacant for more than 10 years. A previous proposal called for the construction of a group home for juvenile offenders at the site. But that proposal faced strong opposition from residents and some township officials.

K. Hovnanian Homes wants to build 54 town houses and garden apartments on the 4-acre site. Six of the units will be affordable housing and the other 48 market-rate and two-bedroom condos will sell for about $300,000 apiece, lawyers said. The Lower Ferry Road project would be the fourth condominium project for the Middlesex County-based American Properties, which is also the developer of the Ewing Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Scotch Road near the Hopewell Township border.

If the Lower Ferry Road project and the developer's other proposal for condominiums off Bear Tavern Road are approved by the planning board and developed as proposed, the combined number of condominiums built by American Properties in the township would be 817 units. The company already has built two condo complexes in the township, Scotch Run on Scotch Road and The Madison on Lower Ferry Road.

Last November the council voted to change the zoning off Bear Tavern Road from industrial to residential to allow American Properties to build high-density housing on a 28-acre tract between Trenton-Mercer Airport and Interstate 95 opposite the Jones Farm Correctional Facility. The company wants to build 270 condominiums on the site.

Thirty-four of the 235 units on Lower Ferry Road would be affordable housing units. The market-rate, two-bedroom units would sell for about $245,000, representatives for American Properties said.

Residents questioned the effect the new homes would have on the school system and taxes and feared an influx of school-age children.

Councilman Bert Steinmann said the township needs more housing like the projects being proposed for young professionals and empty nesters who don't want to mow their lawns. The lawyer for American Properties said that the township would gain revenue from the projects after all costs and services are figured in.

Some residents questioned whether the town would really make money from the development. The lawyer figured that between 33 and 44 school-age children would live in the complex, according to various estimates. He said he believed the number would be 33 or lower and said the Scotch Run condominiums only have one child in the public schools this year.