Age-restricted homes at issue for planners Talks center on whether more housing for people over age 55 is needed BY LARRY RAMER Staff Writer MARLBORO — Members of the Planning Board are in the midst of trying to decide if more age-restricted housing should be built in Marlboro. At least one occupant of an age-restricted home must be over age 55, according to federal law. No one under the age of 18 can legally live in age-restricted communities. On Dec. 1, the Planning Board reviewed recommendations made by a committee that has proposed changes to the town’s master plan. The master plan is the document that details how and where a municipality is supposed to develop. The members of the committee agreed on most issues, but differed on the question of whether more land in Marlboro should be set aside for age-restricted housing, according to attorney Dennis A. Collins, who represents the board. Committee members Peter Bellone, Gerald Bergh and Mitch Jacobs did not believe additional land should be set aside for age-restricted homes. Committee members Elio DiCosmo and Marty Siskel believed that more land should be dedicated to age-restricted housing in Marlboro’s revised master plan, Collins said. Bellone, Bergh and DiCosmo are Planning Board members. Jacobs represented Mayor Robert Kleinberg and Siskel was a representative of the Township Council. Former councilwoman Mary Singer, another representative of the governing body, moved from Marlboro shortly before the committee’s work was completed. If more age-restricted housing units are built in town, Marlboro would receive less state education aid, according to Kleinberg, who also sits on the Planning Board. “The state determines the amount of aid it gives to school districts through property values and income,” said the mayor, who is a former member of the Marlboro Board of Education. “If we have age-restricted houses being sold for $500,000 there will be a negative impact on state [school] aid.” The mayor said that allowing more age-restricted units in Marlboro would also place a drain on the community’s emergency medical services, possibly costing taxpayers more money. “People in the first aid squads have told me that more senior [citizen] developments will lead to a large increase in the number of calls they receive. That could cause us to have to go to a paid [emergency medical services] system, which would cost taxpayers an enormous amount of money,” the mayor said. Jacobs said developers would want to build expensive, high density age-restricted projects in Marlboro. Most of the people who would move into these homes would still drive frequently, adding to traffic, he contended. Collins said houses at these prices would not attract Marlboro residents who want to sell their homes and move to less expensive houses. Siskel, who chairs the local Democratic Party, said he believes age-restricted housing would provide many benefits and little detriment to Marlboro. “I have a lot of friends who bought their houses at $30,000 or $40,000 and are selling them for $400,000,” said Siskel, 59. “Those people are moving to Jackson or other towns, paying $10,000 to $12,000 in [property] taxes and not sending kids to school. I’d rather have those people stay in Marlboro.” Siskel said he believes retired residents would stay in Marlboro if they had the option to do so. The traffic jams that occur on major roads in Marlboro are caused by people who do not live in the township, Siskel contended. He said municipal officials should look for a way to recruit more volunteers for Marlboro’s first aid squads. Siskel added that no one has calculated whether the property taxes senior citizens pay would offset the reduction in state school aid the mayor claims their presence in Marlboro would trigger. “If the people who are saying [age-restricted housing] is bad haven’t done that type of study, age-restricted housing is probably not bad” for the school system, Siskel said. Including homes in Marlboro that have been approved but not yet built, about 13.3 percent of houses in the community are or will be age-restricted, Bergh said. Municipalities throughout Monmouth County have set aside an average of 12.5 percent of their housing for age-restricted residences, as of the 2000 census, he said. Nearby communities Manalapan, Aberdeen and Old Bridge have approved a total of at least 1,600 additional age-restricted units in areas that are close to Marlboro, Bergh added. “Since Marlboro is above the county average of age-restricted units ... based on the 2000 census, and considering all the age-restricted units in surrounding towns, I don’t see a need for additional [age-restricted] units at this time,” Bergh said. The Planning Board will have to decide whether additional age-restricted units are needed, Collins said. The next meeting about the master plan is scheduled for Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. in Town Hall. The Township Council makes the final decision on the board’s recommendations for the master plan. The committee unanimously approved all other components of the master plan recommendations, Collins said. Township Planner Jennifer Beame said the committee recommended that the permitted density in several areas of the township be reduced. At the site where the Marlboro Airport once operated at Route 79 and Harbor Road the density is now one house per 2 acres on most of the land. The subcommittee recommended that the density be changed to one structure every 5 acres. The same zoning would be instituted in areas surrounding the airport site. In all, about 50 acres would be upzoned on the airport property and the surrounding area. In the area of Marlboro between Route 18 and the Freehold Township border near Route 79, the committee recommended that the land be changed from a zone that allows small commercial establishments and houses as a conditional use to a zone that would allow officials to attract ratables such as large stores, car dealerships and restaurants. All businesses would have to be at least 200 feet away from the nearest home in this zone, Beame said. The committee also recommended that the zoning of a tract of land south of the property that formerly housed the Marlboro State Psychiatric Hospital be changed from one structure per 5 acres to one structure per 10 acres. The committee suggested that a few areas be changed from residential zones to commercial districts. A portion of the land surrounding Tennent Road east of Route 79 should be changed from a residential district to a zone dedicated to office buildings, the committee said. A parcel of land on Route 520 west of Route 9 near the Old Bridge border would be changed from a commercial zone to an office zone. A tract of land north of the Marlboro Motors car dealership on the west side of Route 79 near the village section of Marlboro would be switched from a variety of zones to a commercial district that would enable officials to attract small businesses, Bellone said. The Township Council makes the final determination on changes in the municipality’s zoning.