O'port planners approve age-restricted housing
44 units to be built on tract owned by sports authority
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

OCEANPORT -- The borough Planning Board approved a 44-unit age-restricted housing complex last week that will be built on a tract owned by Monmouth Park racetrack.

The application by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA), which operates the racetrack, received a unanimous 8-0 vote at the Oct. 25 meeting for major subdivision and site plan approval for Jockey Club Estates.

"The applicant indicated that the application would serve the needs of providing senior housing and also preserve a substantial part of the site in its natural habitat," according to the resolution of approval.

Plans call for NJSEA to construct 44 age-restricted units on a 30-acre tract of vacant land at East Main Street and Port-au-Peck Avenue, where a branch of Wachovia Bank now stands, according to the application filed at the planning board office.

The NJSEA originally proposed to construct a 46-unit housing complex.

"A reduction of units was necessary due to the change in stormwater regulations by the state," the applicant's attorney, Kerry E. Higgins, said at the meeting.

The tract extends from Port-au-Peck Avenue on the south to Oceanport Avenue on the north and from East Main Street to the east to Oceanport Avenue on the west.

Developer K. Hovnanian Homes is contract purchaser of the property, according to Higgins, of McKenna, DuPont, Higgins & Stone, Red Bank.

The multiple-unit project is a permitted use in the zone, according to the resolution, which states that the site is located in the borough's Village Center and multifamily zones.

The units will consist of a mix of ranches and two-story homes, with each unit having a two-car garage.

Plans also call for two interior roadways to be built as part of the project. One street going from east Main Street in front of the development to Oceanport Avenue in the back of the development to parallel Port-au-Peck Avenue and another road to horseshoe in the back of the development, according to the application.

The developers also will install shrubbery and landscaping along Port-au-Peck and Oceanport avenues, according to the application.

Approximately 17 acres of the site will be a dedicated conservation easement, according to the resolution.

There was no comment from the public at the meeting.