BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

JACKSON — Opponents of a proposed commercial application in Jackson finally had their say about the project.

They found support among members of the Planning Board, which voted at a special meeting on Nov. 29 to deny an application to build Pinewood Village adjacent to The Preserve, a residential community at Route 537 and Woodbury Drive.

Attorney Raymond Shea represented the developer of the project, Bernard Hochberg, of Freehold. In a statement provided by Shea on Dec. 1, he indicated that Hochberg intends to sue the board over its denial of the project.

“It was a wrongful denial and a defeat for the taxpayers of Jackson because the taxpayers just lost the economic benefits of a clean commercial ratable which this community so desperately needs,” Shea said in the statement. “Jackson taxpayers take it on the chin again.”

On the final night of testimony, Shea presented project planner Brian Leff, traffic engineer Elizabeth Dolan and Brandy Birckbichler, site development manager for Goddard Systems Inc., as witnesses. A Goddard School was one of the proposed uses for the site. The witnesses provided additional details in support of the application.

Planning Board member Robert Ryley made the motion to deny Pinewood Village, which Shea said was a fully conforming application that could have been built without the variance to extend frontage on Route 537 that Hochberg requested.

Route 537 is a county highway that separates Ocean and Monmouth counties.

“Call it what you will, it doesn’t strike me [as reasonable],” Ryley said in making the motion for the denial.

Board Vice Chairman Thomas Matusz seconded the motion.

Members eligible to vote were Blanche Krubner, Hal Millemann, Ryley, Matusz, board Chairman Michael Reina, Alternate No. 1 Anthony Arecchi and Alternate No. 2 Ronald Rando.

Krubner, Millemann, Ryley, Matusz, Reina, Arecchi and Rando voted to deny the application.

Mayor Michael Broderick and Township Committeeman Sean Giblin, who both sit on the board, and board member Vincent Crocitto were not eligible to vote since they did not attend the Aug. 15 meeting at which testimony was given on the application.

According to board secretary Janice Kisty, Matusz was also absent on that meeting date, but later listened to a tape of the proceedings, making him eligible to vote.

Board member Marvin Krakower was absent during the Oct. 17 meeting at which testimony was given, making him ineligible to vote as well.

Testimony was heard on Aug. 15, Sept. 19, Oct. 17 and on Nov. 29.

Reina asserted that the board’s decision was appropriate, whether or not a judge eventually remands the application back to the panel.

“It costs us money, but this is a proactive world,” he said. “We try our best to [maintain the town’s] quality of life. If it means going to court and [defending a denial, we will]. We’re all neighbors; we have to do what’s right for the town.”

The audience members, most of whom were residents of The Preserve that had come to speak out on the application, applauded Reina’s comments.

Residents of The Preserve organized in opposition to Hochberg’s proposed commercial project before it was heard. They asserted in a flier that the application asked for many waivers and variances.

According to the flier, the proposed commercial development would include two strip mall buildings with multiple tenants, one building with six tenants and a drive-up window, one two-story office building, and one daycare facility run as a Goddard School.

The residents stated their concern about the impact of traffic coming to and from Pinewood Village on roads surrounding the proposed development site.

Resident Joseph Spinelli, one of three residents of The Preserve whose homes would have been closest to the Pinewood Village buildings, agreed with Reina’s reason for voting to deny the application.

“It’s not a question of winning or losing, but doing the right thing,” he said after the meeting.

In the past year, the Planning Board has denied three applications, according to township zoning officer Richard Megill. The three applications were Ashlie Plaza, also a commercial application; Grawtown Estates, a residential application in the regional growth zone of the township’s Pinelands region; and Pinewood Village.

Megill said state Superior Court Judge Eugene Serpentelli, sitting in Toms River, upheld the board’s denial of Grawtown Estates, which Shea also represents.

Shortly after the board denied the Ashlie Plaza application, the Township Committee rezoned the site from neighborhood commercial back to residential with one home per 3 acres.

Megill said the Zoning Board of Adjustment has denied one application this year. That application, South Knolls at Cooks Bridge, was resubmitted with changes.