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There would be a maximum of 104 for-sale senior living units in the existing building, 40 rental units in the new three-story building and 65 for-sale units in the new townhouses.

According to Kendra Lelie, a licensed planner who helped prepare the site’s redevelopment plan, there will be 46 affordable housing units that would go toward Holmdel’s fourth-round affordable housing obligations.

This would be part of the 133 total units needed in Holmdel, in addition to the town’s 129 existing units in need of repair.

The senior living community would also include community meeting rooms, restaurant/dining facilities, a retail convenience store, medical office facilities and an emergency services building.

Biking and walking trails, athletic fields, detention and infiltration basins, generators, a wastewater treatment plant and pumping facilities are included in the plan’s accessory uses, which may be open to the public as well as residents’ use.

Now that the redevelopment plan has been adopted, Lelie said next steps for the town would be naming a redeveloper, entering into a redevelopment agreement, and getting approval on the redeveloper’s site plan.

“There are many steps into this process,” Lelie said. “And many opportunities for public comment as well as review.”

Board & Resident Concerns
At Tuesday’s planning board meeting, the board moved the redevelopment plan to the township committee for approval with certain stipulations.

The board made the following recommendations on the plan:

Although the board made these recommendations, Lelie said she doesn’t see them as tenable at this time, as the relocation and indoor recreation recommendations would both be “significant changes” that require revised or separate redevelopment plans for approval.

In regards to the lot coverage recommendation, Lelie said the current language of the redevelopment plan is sufficient for managing what total building coverage would be.

Alongside suggestions from the planning board, Holmdel residents and local organizations had plenty to say on the redevelopment plan as well.

The Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU), a citizens group dedicated to protecting Holmdel’s open space, sent a letter to the Planning Board listing their concerns on the redevelopment plan, including:

Karen Strickland, the VP of programs and social media with CILU, presented the letter to planning board members on Tuesday night.

“CILU urges the planning board to expand this redevelopment document to more than one type of development and consider alternative uses for this site that include input from the community and provide greater benefit,” Strickland said. “Not only to Holmdel residents, but for residents of surrounding towns that depend on our stewardship of the Swimming River Reservoir.”

Jay Yanello, a resident who was on the Vonage Committee, emphasized CILU’s concerns about potential impact on the area’s drinking water.

During Thursday’s committee meeting, Yanello said that while this is “an okay plan,” it draws significant concerns about the site’s package treatment plant, retention basins and the nearby stream.

“Any rational person would say ‘that retention basin isn’t draining, it could be problematic,’” Yanello said. “The idea of pumping 15,000 gallons a day onto the grass to percolate – not the best thought.”

“I and other people have very significant concerns about the package treatment plant, the retention basin, the stream nearby,” Yanello continued. “You don’t want to be the committee that destroyed the drinking water for 300,000 people.”

In response to Yanello’s concerns, Impreveduto said there will be “no scrimping of standards” on the package treatment plant, or any other parts of the redevelopment.

“We’re gonna put the duo rigor around this to make sure this thing is safe,” Impreveduto said. “And that we’re not, in any shape or form, damaging the environment, drinking water, or harming the folks that rely on this area.”

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Lance Lupe, another resident who attended Thursday’s meeting, asked if the redevelopment plan was the best thing for Holmdel, or just the best option currently available.

“It seems to me as if we’re settling,” Lupe said. “Everyone sitting on that dais, when they ran to be elected, I don’t remember anyone running on the platform of ‘Elect me, and I’ll do an okay job’ and ‘Elect me, and I’ll come up with mediocre solutions to the town’s problems.’”

“I think that everyone up there was elected because everyone thought they were going to do the best for the town,” Lupe continued. “So I would ask everyone up there — when you make this vote — is this the best solution for the town? Or is this just a ‘Okay, it’s good enough, it’s better than nothing’ type solution?”

In response to Lupe’s concerns, Impreveduto went through alternate redevelopment proposals for the site and emphasized that, in comparison, this is the best solution for the property.

“Given everything on the table, the accommodations made…this is the best possible solution we could have for the property,” Impreveduto said.

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