Howell will take over development in Wall

Howell will take over
development in Wall
Construction of new road
expected to alleviate
local traffic concerns
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

HOWELL — Municipal officials will direct an annexation of Hidden View, a residential development that is under construction in neighboring Wall Township, but accessible only by way of roads that are in Howell and Brick.

Hidden View is a 177-home age restricted community.

In conjunction with making Hidden View a part of Howell, officials will also construct a new access road into the development.

The construction of the new road will cost Howell $750,000 and will include a sidewalk, according to Township Planner Michael Vena. He said he expects construction of the road to begin next spring and take about two months to complete.

Hidden View, which sits on 50 acres, was approved by the Wall Planning Board several years ago and constructed so that it was landlocked on the Wall border, accessible only through roads that are in Howell and Brick.

Howell residents who live in the area started complaining to officials about an increase in traffic along their 25 mph streets.

Township Attorney Thomas Gannon has explained that following years of litigation on the matter and notwithstanding the fact that the state Supreme Court ultimately found Howell had "legitimate needs and concerns," it directed Wall and Howell to work together to remediate the situation.

Solutions for coming up with an additional access route into and out of Hidden View were always limited due to the fact that the development is bounded by wetlands and the Garden State Parkway.

In June, Vena said the remedy that has been agreed to is that Howell will take 14 acres of vacant land near Jacob Drive and construct a road that will become the only access road for motorists into Hidden View. That should alleviate the wear and tear on neighboring roads, he said.

The new road will run directly into Hidden View off of Newton’s Corner Road.

Gannon said the builder of Hidden View, Howell Properties, Woodbridge, and Wall officials have agreed to let Howell annex the development that currently belongs to Wall.

Gannon said Wall will not lose the affordable housing credits the development represents with the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Neither Gannon nor Mayor Timothy J. Konopka knew how many COAH credits Hidden View carries.

Township Manager Bruce Davis said on June 22 that the solution to annex the development and build a new road was the result of brainstorming on the part of a group of Howell officials that included Gannon, Vena, Township Engineer William Nunziato and himself.

Councilman Joseph DiBella said Howell’s representatives tried to get the developer and Wall officials to kick in for the cost of the road, but both refused.

"We beat the bushes every way we could to come up with the money," DiBella said.

Access to Hidden View from Red Bud Lane and Cherry Lane will be closed to all motorists and will only be used by emergency vehicles, according to Konopka, who said the new road would also alleviate traffic on neighboring Pine Needle and Poplar streets. Both of those streets were also being used as ac­cess into Hidden View.

Konopka has estimated that an­nexing Hidden View could mean a $1 million annual tax gain for Howell with no impact on the school system since children do not reside in that community. He said annexing the project will allow Howell to offset the cost of police and emergency services responses that would have been made at Hidden View even if annexation did not take place.

Robert Solomon and Larry Diamond, who were at the fore­front of the residents’ call for offi­cials to try and find a solution to the problem, thanked township of­ficials for sticking with the effort and for coming up with a workable solution.