Athletic center comes up short in bid for approval
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

HOWELL - A developer's plan to build an athletic training facility on Fairfield Road came up one vote short of approval at the Dec. 3 meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

The applicant who proposed to construct the Monmouth County Athletic Center sought a use variance in order to place the project in a Special Economic Development and ARE-6 Rural Agricultural/ Natural Resource Protection zone. The project was designed solely as a recreational facility, which is a non-permitted use in these zones.

Approval required five affirmative votes and when the board members voted the applicant was one affirmative vote short of getting the go-ahead.

Board members Charles Chirico, Kenneth French, Wendell Nanson and Chairman John Van Noy voted in favor of the project. Board members John Armata, Vice Chairman Steve Meier and Richard Ryan voted in opposition to the plan. Alternate board members Kenneth Allen and Thomas O'Donnell were ineligible to vote.

Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, who represented the applicant, said the opposition to the project stemmed mostly from concerns about the potential traffic impact.

"I believe my client's application was great for the township. I think it was in the right location considering it was off Route 33. The concerns about traffic that were stated by some residents were overstated. Any development in that location would bring additional traffic, unless they curtail all development and keep the status quo," he said.

"When a determination such as this is made, they should consider the entire municipality of 55,000 residents and not the few" who oppose it, Sonnenblick said. "There must be a balance and consideration of the benefits vs. the intrusion into the general location."

T.J. Coan, principal and managing director of the Monmouth County Athletic Center, said, "This is a sad day for Howell that a project of this quality and this scope was not approved. We did everything the board asked us to do. Our next and No. 1 option is to appeal."

In regard to the traffic concerns raised by some objectors, Coan said, "In a traffic report to the zoning board prepared by CME Associates professional engineer James Watson, (it was stated that) our improvements to Route 33 and Fairfield Road would create a positive situation where the traffic would operate better after construction than before construction.

"If Howell cannot pass an application for recreation in an industrial zone, then what other businesses are going to want to come here?" Coan asked. "This facility would have created 92 jobs after construction."

He said opposition to the plan was instigated by residents Don and Pauline Smith.

"The taxpayers should really call Don and Pauline Smith and thank them when their July tax bills come out," he said. "I would like to know how many jobs have the Smiths created for Howell."

In response to Coan's comments, Pauline Smith said that as a former member of the Planning Board who served for 15 years, "I have worked and approved many opportunities that employ a number of people in the township today."

Smith called Coan unprofessional and said he did not care about Howell. She questioned whether the business he wanted to bring to Howell would have been a real ratable for the township.

Smith said the project did not fit the property for which it was proposed.

"That facility does not fit there. If Mr. Coan cared, he would have bought a piece of property on Route 9 where it belongs," Smith said. "This project would have completely destroyed the rural nature of that (Fairfield Road) neighborhood. Thank God there were members on the board who voted the way they did. This proposed project just happened to be in my neighborhood, but even if it was not, I would have still come out to help the people."

Don Smith reiterated his wife's statements and called Coan's comments "totally unfounded." He also questioned whether the athletic center would have proven to be a "true ratable for the township."

According to Smith, "People fail to realize that the services they demand eats up whatever they (businesses) decide to give in taxes. With all of these big-box stores, our taxes have not gone down one penny."