Boro can go forward on projects
Additional sewer capacity wins boro go-ahead from COAH
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS - Apparently, the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) is convinced that the borough has enough sewer capacity to support its affordable housing plan.

On Oct. 11, a ban on new development in the southern end of town was lifted by the state.

The move frees the town to go forward with two construction projects that are in various stages of Planning Board approval.

Bryan Dempsey, borough business administrator, said the borough's affordable housing counsel, Andrew Bayer, of Gluck Walrath in Trenton, appeared on behalf of the borough at a state COAH hearing. According to Dempsey, Bayer was able to show that there is enough capacity at the Neptune Township Sewerage Authority treatment plant (NTSA) to accommodate development since the borough signed an agreement with Avon-by-the-Sea for additional capacity.

Avon has turned over 130,000 gallons of sewer capacity to Tinton Falls, Dempsey said.

"That is more than enough to serve the two COAH projects, Avalon Bay and Traditions."

According to Bayer, COAH dissolved the scarce resource restraining order so now Tinton Falls can issue a TWA (sewer treatment works application) for sewer capacity.

The application allows the borough to apply for sewage treatment at the TNSA, which supplies sewage treatment for the southeastern end of Tinton Falls.

Of the two communities with a COAH component, Avalon Bay Communities, a proposed housing development to be built on Route 33, has been approved. Traditions at Tinton Falls, a 270-unit townhouse and condominium development that would be built on 83 acres at Wardell and Shafto roads, is working its way through the Planning Board process.

Two hearings have been held and another hearing will be held at the Nov. 8 Planning Board meeting where the discussion of the traffic impact will be held.

Dempsey said there was an order to show cause that hasn't been removed yet.

"Each town in the TNSA has to submit a yearly customer report. The TNSA takes those numbers and subtracts them from that town's capacity. The borough was one or two years behind," he explained, adding that the borough's customer report was approved at a recent TNSA meeting so the order to show cause should be removed.

"There is 109,000 gallons of capacity available that hasn't been allocated," Dempsey said, explaining that there is enough capacity for the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets center on Route 66 proposed by Chelsea Property Group of Roseland, as well as for other smaller projects.