JACKSON-For months, residents have packed the board room at the Jackson Township administration building to protest the development of Jackson Parke, a project approved by the Jackson Township Council for affordable housing development in 2018.
A court settlement in Ocean County Superior Court gave the project new life. Then the township council voted to approve the project as part of their COAH requirement.
Originally proposed as a 900 plus age-restricted unit, the project came alive again as “Jackson Parke”, a 1,100 unit complex to be built on filled-in wetlands and lowlands.
The applicant for the project gave the public few answers and said the project would require at least 100 dump trucks carrying fill at least two years to fill in the lowlands and bring the grade up to the required height to build.
Residents expressed concerns over building a small town on top of fill dirt, water and sewer problems, structural problems, traffic along the sleepy one lane Perrineville Road and the need to use eminent domain against current landowners.
In the end, the planning board unanimously voted no after hours of testimony from the public.
The hearing was for the northern section of development. The applicant still has to go before the board for the southern portion of the project.
