U.S. Home seeking reversal of board’s denial Planners said no to application for 135 homes

U.S. Home seeking reversal of board’s denial
Planners said no
to application
for 135 homes

The Howell Planning Board’s denial in April of an application filed by U.S. Home, Freehold, seeking ap-proval to build homes on land along Route 524 in northern Howell has been answered with a lawsuit filed by the developer.

In a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, Freehold, U.S. Home charges that the board’s denial of its application was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

U.S. Home is asking the court to reverse the denial, direct the board chairperson to sign the subdivision map, and declare the application approved under its preliminary subdivision approval, as well as any additional subdivision approvals sought by U.S. Home for the subject property.

The U.S. Home application was deemed complete by the Planning Board in June 2000 but had been carried over the course of several public hearings until its eventual rejection earlier this year.

When the application came before the board, the area in question was zoned for what U.S. Home had proposed and no variances were necessary. The developer had been seeking waivers to allow existing structures to remain and detention ponds to be built inside proposed buffer zones.

The developer was seeking approval to construct a 135-home development on a 203-acre parcel known as the Schuch-Hascup property, a contiguous parcel of land between Howell and Havens Bridge roads. Cluster zoning was being proposed for the Schuch-Hascup properties with an approximate 70-acre open space land donation to be made to the township.

The project was opposed by a number of individuals, including Mayor Timothy J. Konopka, who was so opposed to the project that he recused himself as a board member from hearing the application and spoke out publicly and in print against the US Home plan.

At the time the application was being heard, Konopka said that if the US Home project was approved it would change the makeup of the entire area, degrade the quality of life and put a tremendous burden on the community and the school system, as well as create a traffic hazard in the area.

The final April 2001 vote by the Planning Board to deny the application indicated the board held with the mayor.

US Home, in its appeal to the court, asserts the Planning Board’s professionals raised a number of procedural issues and questions which, US Home contends, were "solely intended to delay the processing" of the application.

The lawsuit also references Konopka’s public opposition to the application, citing "lengthy and emotional diatribes" and charging that the mayor intended to "limit and forestall further residential growth within the township."

At the time of the vote, board members said they had concerns about the project that had not been answered to their satisfaction. They said they felt they had been rushed into making a decision by US Home attorney John Giunco, who, they said, demanded a vote in light of a pending rezoning of the Schuch-Hascup property by the Township Council that eventually did occur and did end up rezoning the subject property.

In addition to approval for the 135 homes the developer wants to build, the US Home lawsuit against Howell also seeks all attorneys costs and fees and any other relief the court may deem appropriate.