Developer may get more units at Crossway Creek
Builder would move planned homes farther from nearby properties
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE - Borough officials are recommending that the Crossway Creek redevelopment plan be changed to allow 96 housing units, an increase of 13 homes.

Crossway Creek would be a townhouse community located just east of the Garden State Parkway, near Prusakoski Boulevard and Gondek Drive. Its developer, PRC Group, requested the additional units.

The Planning Board voted 9-0 to recommend the changes at its July 2 meeting. Robert McGowan, the builder's attorney, said the proposed amendment also addresses buffering concerns raised by residents who live in the adjacent Spinnaker Pointe.

While the development was proposed as an "age-targeted" community, the Planning Board recommended the amended plan with the stipulation that the community be agerestricted. This would require that at least one resident in each unit be over the age of 65, and minors cannot permanently reside there.

"To get my vote, it has to be age-restricted," Board Vice Chairman Thomas Tighe said.

McGowan said the planned housing units were sized in order to appeal to "emptynesters" who would not bring school-age children to town. To make the plan viable, he said, each proposed unit would have between one and three bedrooms, since some couples prefer to have additional space.

Borough Engineer Jay Cornell told Greater Media Newspapers that the 13-acre property is currently vacant. Years ago, approvalwas given for an assisted living facility to be built with 272 units. That was not built, and the zone was changed to allow 83 townhouse units.

Cornell said the amendments now being recommended to the mayor and Borough Council include an increase in building coverage on the site from 25 to 30 percent, and an increase in total area coverage from 40 to 50 percent.

Residents of Spinniker Pointe raised objections to the proposal at prior Planning Board hearings, and the developer worked with those neighbors to resolve the issues over the past year, Cornell said. The builder agreed to move some of the proposed units away from nearby properties at Spinnaker Pointe.

Daniel W. Busch, the applicant's engineer, said the amended plan includes 40 feet of separation between buildings, as well as a greater distance between the proposed development and Spinnaker Pointe. A fenced wall on the west side of the property and additional landscaping are also included in the amended plan. Decks on the properties would range from 8 to 10 feet in length, he added.

The Borough Council will review the amended plan in committee before deciding whether to adopt changes to the zoning ordinance. Board Chairman Dr. John Misiewicz said that nearby residents would get advance notice of when the developer would seek site plan approval from the Planning Board, if the council adopts the changes.

"The developer went to great lengths to make sure that nearby residents were satisfied with the changes," Misiewicz said. "That's a good way to get projects approved, … to go to the neighbors and talk about their concerns and try to take care of as much as possible."