Zoners approve MU dorm, parking lot

Objector to challenge decision, citing alumni on board
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

A rendering of the new dormitory building approved by the West Long Branch Zoning Board.

Almost 200 undergraduates will have on-campus digs to move into at Monmouth University now that West Long Branch officials have green-lighted a long-awaited 196-bed residence hall.

Cheers, applause and sighs of relief emanated from about 75 university employees and supporters, mostly seated on one of two sides of the Borough Council’s chambers, just before midnight on Aug. 31 when the Zoning Board of Adjustment chose to allow construction of the three-story dormitory, a 126-stall parking lot, six tennis courts, 2.5-acre retention basin, and other facilities on the northern part of the campus.

Yet, on the opposite side of the same room, another 75 spectators, many of them homeowners living near the parcels the university plans to build on, let out groans and sighs of frustration over a 5-1 decision that they feel allows the four-year college to spread too far into their residential neighborhood.

In fact, the words “satellite location” appeared to be the mantra uttered by many of those neighbors who voiced objections to the university’s application for preliminary site plan approval, and numerous bulk and use variances.

Expanding university facilities onto satellite locations would solve the problem of increased enrollment without adding more living space or parking lots in the residential R-22 zones that it plans to build in, many of the neighbors stated during a lengthy public portion.

Before the board grants final site plan approval, a laundry list of conditions detailed by Borough Engineer Bonnie Hurd and the board itself have to be met. Those conditions include the posting of construction and maintenance bonds with the town.

A hearing on that portion of the application will be heard at a later date to be determined within 30 to 60 days of the preliminary site plan approval.

For now, the well-attended, but often raucous and contentious, hearings on the university’s application are over, albeit almost two years since university officials first came to the board in November 2003.

The university will meet all of the conditions requested by the borough including the posting of bonds as recommended, according to Patricia L. Swannack, Monmouth’s vice president for administrative services.

Many of the suggestions offered mainly by the board members to ensure that the expansion is as successful and nonintrusive as possible have been well-received by the university, Swannack noted.

“We are very pleased with the decision of the Zoning Board,” Swannack said after the hearing. “The board committed a lot of time to this application. Some of their comments were outstanding.”

Stating that the application did not benefit the borough as a whole, board member Samuel Guidetti cast the lone dissenting vote.

The areas that the university plans to build in, including the Kilkare Farm located between Beechwood and Hollywood avenues, are currently located in an R-22 zone, prompting the application for use variances,

The plan, as approved, calls for the new residence hall to be constructed at the corner of Cedar and Pinewood avenues near three existing dormitories.

University officials have testified that the residence hall is needed to relieve an on-campus housing shortage that has resulted in numerous students renting off-campus accommodations mostly in neighboring Long Branch and Ocean Township.

In the meantime, Joseph Hughes, the Pinewood Avenue resident who hired James Siciliano, a Long Branch-based attorney, to fight the expansion, is already planning to appeal the board’s decision.

Three of the board members who voted affirmatively — Board Chairman Rocco Christopher, Irvin Miller and Robert Springman — are Monmouth University graduates, a situation that poses a conflict of interest, Hughes said.

“Their ‘yes’ votes for the application were ‘no’ votes for the quality of life in this town,” Hughes said after the meeting.

“It’s an embarrassment to this town to have university alumni voting on this application,” Hughes said.

With that perceived conflict by the board in mind, Hughes plans to appeal the board’s decision to the state Superior Court in Freehold

Hughes lives across Pinewood Avenue from the site where the 126-spot parking lot is planned near the corner of Beechwood Avenue. Through Siciliano, he has argued that excess lighting and noise coming from the lot will prove disruptive to his own quality of life.

Other residents testified before that the new retention basin, to be constructed along with tennis courts and a 20-space parking lot on the site of the former Kilkare Farm, will cause flooding in the basements of their homes.

Dot Schulze, a Monmouth Road real estate agent who had testified on Hughes’ behalf at an earlier hearing, reiterated her concerns that property values would decrease in the neighborhood nearest the campus as a result of the expansion.

“If this is built, those property [values] will come down,” she warned.

As of Friday, Swannack said she was not aware of Hughes’ intention to appeal the board decision.

Nonetheless, the university will move ahead to seek the mandatory permits from the borough sewer authority and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for the forthcoming construction, Swannack said.

Groundbreaking for any new facilities cannot take place until after final site plan approval and issuance of all needed permits, Swannack said.

In statement, university President Paul G. Gaffney II said the new facilities will benefit campus and neighborhood alike.

“I am pleased, first because the outcome was positive for the university and because the overall plan creates park-like facilities for the borough,” Gaffney said.

“But, I am also pleased that such processes are transparent, tend to build trust and enable neighbors, university and residents alike, to communicate their desires and find common ground,” he continued.

The university still plans to cap undergraduate enrollment in order to cope with the ongoing housing shortage, Swannack has said. Current plans call for creating a satellite campus in Long Branch.