Gov. proposes increased protection for Metedeconk
Doubts cast on Traders Cove, Home Depot and other waterfront plans
By Karl Vilacoba
Staff Writer

New Jersey residents need to rise up and fight "the battle against sprawl," according to Gov. James McGreevey, and Brick Township is at the front lines.

The governor railed against overdevelopment and its environmental consequences before a room packed with municipal, Ocean County, state and environmental leaders last week. His speech, held at the Metedeconk River Yacht Club, Tilton Road, was part of a dual-purpose press conference in which he ordered the state’s emergency drought conditions lifted and announced that the Metedeconk River watershed was being proposed for Category One (C1) environmental protection status.

"The battle is taking place right here on the banks of the Metedeconk, which provides critical drinking water to 100,000 year-round residents and even more seasonal visitors," McGreevey said.

"We must empower our towns, our communities, our municipalities to turn away the destructive sprawl that threatens our water supplies and leaves working parents spending ever more time sitting in traffic than with their children," he said.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ The Metedeconk River, the primary source of drinking water for Brick and surrounding communities, may receive extra environmental protection, Gov. James McGreevey (r), seen here with DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell, announced last week.

The C1 protection proposal is expected to go through a series of public hearings in February. If enacted — and officials spoke in certain terms that it would — the river system would be protected from any discharges that produce a "measurable change" in the existing quality of the water, state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley Campbell said.

The Metedeconk is the primary source of drinking water for residents of Brick, Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach, all of whom are customers of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority. It will be the 23rd body of water proposed for increased protection during his tenure, McGreevey said.

"[C1 status] means you need significant buffers between any development and the waterway," Campbell said. "As a practical matter, it limits the extent to which you can build right along the waterway where it’s going to have the most significant impact."

If enacted quickly, the C1 protection casts an uncertain future on upcoming waterfront developments proposed in Brick and other Metedeconk watershed communities.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ The Metedeconk River, the primary source of drinking water for Brick and surrounding communities, may receive extra environmental protection, Gov. James McGreevey announced last week.

One notable local application, that of a Home Depot proposed to replace a vacant Foodtown on Route 70 and Brick Boulevard, would appear to be affected by its proximity to the Metedeconk. However, municipal officials, still working to interpret the fine print of the C1 regulations, are unsure of how the measures will influence the application.

Frederick Underwood, a Brick councilman who is that body’s liaison to the Planning Board, said he believes the C1 protection might eliminate the project’s chances of passage altogether.

But Assistant Township Planner Tara Paxton said the building’s pre-existing status may enable it to dodge some regulations.

The Home Depot is scheduled for its first public hearing on Jan. 22, according to Judith Fox-Nelson, board secretary.

The existing building sits just a few feet from the extension of the river known as Forge Pond. Plans call for the Foodtown to be demolished and the Home Depot to be built on its existing footprint.

The store would consist of a 104,695-square-foot main building and an 18,721-square-foot outdoor garden center wing. Variances are being sought for excess impervious coverage and fewer required parking spaces.

A group known as The Concerned Citizens of Brick has assembled to oppose the project at the Planning Board level, and has hired attorney Ronald Gasiorowski to represent them. Gasiorowski said he was familiarizing himself with the C1 regulations, and declined further comment at this time.

Asked what the chances were for buildings to be torn down and rebuilt along waterways protected with C1 designation, the governor said "it would be exceptionally difficult."

"You would have to analyze whether there were additional impacts on the stream," Campbell added. "It would be more difficult, certainly, than under current laws and regulations."

Once the Metedeconk is under C1 protection, developers seeking DEP permits under the Coastal Area Facility Review Act will face the state’s most stringent buffer regulations, according to Paxton. At the municipal level, the quality and quantity of water runoff caused by applications will be heavily scrutinized, she said.

One application that could be affected by C1 protection, Paxton said, is Traders Cove, a commercial and residential development proposed at the end of Mantoloking Road.

Traders Cove was originally approved by the Planning Board in the 1980s as a marina with more than 100 townhouses on an 11.5-acre tract. But a planned residential waterfront development ordinance that made the application possible was later repealed by the Township Council, leaving the unbuilt project as a nonconforming use.

Those plans now have new life, and the latest version, which features 62 residential units, a marina, restaurant and dock master’s quarters, is set for a Zoning Board of Adjustment public hearing on Jan. 29.

Because Brick is basically a built-out community sitting at the Metedeconk’s end, the C1 will likely affect towns upstream the most, Paxton said.

"Since we’re at the Metedeconk’s headwaters, where it meets with the Barnegat Bay, I think the focus will be more on the water that heads into the drinking supply from upstream towns," Paxton said. "The days of 200-unit housing developments in Brick are over. West of the [Garden State] Parkway is where you’re going to see a lot more of the C1 regulations’ impacts on developments."