Residents applaud as zoning change rejected
Hazlet committee votes down high density zone
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer
For the past two months, Jack Shaw has been speaking in front of the Township Committee, pleading for members to do the right thing and vote down the controversial rezoning of a 4-acre tract on Poole Avenue.

On March 25, the committee showed Shaw and the other residents who filled the main room in Town Hall that their voices did not fall on deaf ears.

"I keep seeing Jack [Shaw] at all of these meetings and I see your face and I hate to say this about you, Jack, but I see you in my sleep some nights," said Committeeman Joseph Belasco. "But I hear you always saying over and over, asking the mayor and us that someone has to stick up for you."

Belasco, from the dais, spoke to Shaw who sat in the sixth row as everyone else in the room looked at one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed zoning change.

"Well in case there is a problem, Jack, we will go to war with you and we will have everybody's back," Belasco said. "So if there is a problem, don't forget us because right now we are not forgetting you."

Belasco said that the amendment to zoning ordinances should have been settled in previous administrations but the current committee is the one that had to vote on the issue.

"Now we have to vote on this," Belasco said as the residents awaited his vote. "I will be voting this down."

Belasco's statement was followed by a round of applause from shocked residents, and was followed by a unanimous vote by committeemembers to reject the ordinance.

The proposed zoning amendment would have established a new zone - Medium Density Residential Transition - allowing higher density development on a 4-acre tract on Poole Avenue behind Walgreen's.

Developer Elegant Properties had previously received permission to build 11 houses on the property after failing to gain approval for 26 town homes on the site.

The new ordinance would have made it possible for Elegant Properties to build the town homes.

The vote needed a super-majority, or at least four yes votes out of the five voting committee members to pass.

The expectation going into the meeting among the residents was that the vote would be a 4-1 approval of the amendment as it had been two months earlier at the first hearing on the ordinance when Committeeman Scott Aagre cast the lone no vote. Residents came prepared to speak out against the ordinance and to try to talk the committee out of approving the measure, with some already conceding defeat before the meeting began.

"It's a shame that they're going to approve this," said resident Fran Donnelly, who has been speaking out against the ordinance at recent meetings. "This may be my last meeting I go to. I don't think I can take this anymore."

After themeeting she went up toMayor James DiNardo and thanked him for changing his vote.

"You guys did the right thing," Donnelly said to DiNardo.

"I hope so," DiNardo said. "We'll have to see." DiNardo said the denial of the new zone means that the township could be open to a builder's remedy lawsuit and the township must now come up with a plan to fulfill its affordable housing obligationsmandated by the state.

Residents, who filled the room, had come prepared tomake their case with folders and documents to back up their arguments. DiNardo asked themto wait to hear what the committee's thinking was before they came up to talk.

Aagre went first and repeated what he has been saying from the beginning about the zoning change.

"It's all been amatter of two separate issues," Aagre said. "One of which involves creating a plan for our COAH obligations, which I am for, and the other involves this tract of land and high density zoning. I have been against this for a few years now."

His vote for rejection was expected, and residents waited to hear from Committeeman Joseph Marques: two no votes were needed to block the ordinance.

Marques spoke of what led up to the introduction of the zoning amendment and as he spoke, many residents anticipated he would vote for the rezoning.

But after he was done talking, he received a round of applause for his no vote, a gesture that was repeated five times throughout the night for each committeeman.

"When it comes right down to it though, we believe that with this piece of property, it is not fair for us to come up with a decision that would not be proper for it," Marques said. "I do feel that it should be left as is and the MDRT should be rejected."

DeputyMayor Kevin Lavan agreed with the rest of the committee members.

"At this point, talking it over and seeing what everybody's decision was, I have to go along with my fellow committeemen," Lavan said. "I will vote to reject this."

DiNardo credited his decision to the public outcry.

"I want everyone to know that we do hear you and what you have to say," Di- Nardo said. "Though I don't know what the consequences will be, we should bring this to a close and vote it down."

DiNardo opened the public portion of the meeting, whereupon a resident shouted, "Go ahead and vote."

After the unanimous vote to reject the amendment,more cheers filled the roomas many shared looks of disbelief.

Jack Shaw looked at his wife and said, "I can't believe it."

He then shared his feelings with the Township Committee.

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this," Shaw said to the committee. "It was the right thing to do and I really appreciate it."