VILLAS – A 7-acre parcel at Edna and Fourth avenues in the Bayside Village section of Lower Township has been mostly cleared to make way for a development of 20 homes that was approved more than four years ago.
The clearing of many trees adjacent to the Cox Hall Creek Wildlife Management Area, the site of the former Ponderlodge Golf Course, raised concerns among more than one Herald reader. It appeared as though trees were being cut down in the management area, but Larry Hajna, a spokesman with the state Department of Environmental Protection, said that was not the case.
“There is a 7-acre parcel adjacent to the Shawmount Avenue entrance of the Cox Hall Creek WMA that is privately owned and has been approved for development,” Hajna said. “This parcel was not part of the state’s acquisition of the golf course land.”
Lower Township was attempting to acquire Ponderlodge when, in February 2006, the DEP purchased the 253-acre golf course.
A Zoning Board resolution dated Jan. 9, 2020, granted preliminary and final approval for 22 new lots at 10 Shawmount Ave. in Villas. The applicant, Marcello Mogavero, of Lower Township, was requesting 21 residential lots and two open lot spaces for stormwater at the northwest portion of the lot.
The plan, according to the developer’s engineer, John Kornick, was to create 20 single-family dwellings along a cul-de-sac accessed from Fourth Avenue.
The approved plan calls for sidewalk but no curbing along Shawmount Avenue and a line of trees 6 to 8 feet from the sidewalk.
The matter was heard at the Dec. 5, 2019, Zoning Board meeting, and public comment at that time included concerns about flooding. Attorney Terrance Bennett, representing adjacent neighbors, said that the development would have a negative financial impact on the neighborhood, and that the site should be left undeveloped.
Bennett was advised at the meeting that the parcel was mistakenly zoned conservation and there was a court-ordered subdivision, to which Hajna referred. Bennett said his clients, George and Martha Coleman, live adjacent to the proposed stormwater basin, which they feared would become a mosquito pond.
Kornick advised the Zoning Board that there would be less than 2 feet of water in the basin at any time. However, according to nmpestcontrol.com, a female mosquito only needs about one ounce of standing water in which to lay 300 eggs. The cycle of egg-laying to flight of the newborn typically is within two weeks.
The board ultimately granted the application, with the stipulation that variance relief would expire after three years. The board had granted a use variance for the development.
The explanation for the ongoing work at the site in the face of the apparent expiration of the variance wasn’t immediately clear.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
