An 18,600-square-foot office building and a separate 24-unit housing proposal are raising new questions about traffic, safety and development along the two-lane county road.
JACKSON, N.J. — A developer is seeking approval for a two-story professional office building at East Veterans Highway and Butterfly Road, bringing a major commercial use, 84 parking spaces and two new access points to a residentially zoned property along one of Jackson’s most dangerous road corridors.
The matter will go before the Jackson zoning board Wednesday night.
Butterfly Corner LLC is asking the Jackson Township Zoning Board for preliminary and final major site-plan approval and a conditional-use variance for an 18,600-square-foot office building containing eight suites.
The application is scheduled to return before the Board of Adjustment at 7 p.m. Wednesday after being carried from its July 15 meeting, according to the township’s Sept. 16 meeting agenda.
Two homes would come down for office complex
The 2.08-acre site covers Block 15401, Lots 31 and 32, at the corner of East Veterans Highway, also known as County Route 528, and Butterfly Road.
Both lots currently contain single-family homes and accessory structures. The application calls for removing all existing improvements and replacing them with the office building, 84 paved parking spaces, sidewalks, a refuse enclosure, retaining wall, landscaping, lighting and stormwater infrastructure.
Ten parking spaces would be prepared for future electric-vehicle charging, while four would be accessible spaces.
Drivers would reach the property through a right-in, right-out driveway on East Veterans Highway and a full-access driveway on Butterfly Road. Plans also call for road widening, curbs, sidewalks and right-of-way dedications along both frontages.
Residential zoning requires board approval
The site is in Jackson’s R-1 residential zone, meaning the proposed professional office use cannot proceed as a routine permitted development.
Butterfly Corner LLC is seeking what municipal documents describe as a “d-3” conditional-use variance. The public hearing allows the applicant to present planning, engineering and traffic testimony while residents can question witnesses and state their objections or support.
Township engineering records list Butterfly Corner LLC as both the applicant and owner, care of Mordechai Hirsch.
Hirsch is also associated with Khal Nachlas Avos, a synagogue project planned along Whitesville Road near East Veterans Highway. Shore News Network previously reported that the Jackson Planning Board granted that project a one-year extension while sewer-capacity issues remained unresolved.
Hirsch is the son-in-law of Lakewood philanthropist Richard Roberts, according to previous reporting.
Another housing project proposed along same road
The office application is not the only development moving through Jackson’s land-use process along this section of East Veterans Highway.
BMH Property 4 LLC, also listed in township records as care of Hirsch, has proposed a residential development on an 8.3-acre property between East Veterans Highway and Bowman Road.
The application calls for 20 new market-rate single-family lots and a separate lot containing a two-story, four-unit affordable housing building. The proposal would create a new road called Legacy Lane connecting Bowman Road with East Veterans Highway.
Plans also include 12 parking spaces for the affordable building, sidewalks, lighting, stormwater basins and extensions of public water and sewer infrastructure.
The township planner’s Aug. 27 technical review raised multiple issues requiring testimony or revisions. Among them were traffic impacts, pedestrian circulation, insufficient frontage on four proposed lots, missing accessible parking, sight-triangle easements and the possibility that the case may need to move from the Planning Board to the Zoning Board.
The housing application appeared before the Planning Board on Monday. The available agenda and technical-review materials do not establish that final approval was granted.
Development pressure meets a deadly road history
East Veterans Highway is a winding, mostly two-lane route carrying vehicles through neighborhoods that have historically been rural or residential. The office and housing proposals would introduce additional daily traffic and turning movements at separate points along the corridor.
The road has also been the scene of repeated fatal and destructive crashes.
In October 2025, 16-year-old Michael Gioia was killed near West Lake Court when a pickup crossed the centerline and struck his car head-on. The location was later dedicated as Michael “Mikey” Gioia Way, and a roadside memorial remains at the crash site.
In July, an Academy commuter bus crossed East Veterans Highway at Whitesville Road and slammed into a home, leaving the building uninhabitable. Other crashes along the broader East Veterans corridor have claimed the lives of children, students, parents and other residents over the years.
At least 12 people have died on the stretch of road, making it one of the deadliest roadways in New Jersey. At this time, no plan exists for the county to widen or improve the road near this project.
The site of the proposed office building is also near an intersection where a driver was killed in an earlier collision involving a dump truck, according to local accounts.
Over the years, the stretch has seen more than its fair share of deadly crashes, including children, mothers, and students at local schools. In one year, 7 people died along that stretch prior to the county doing a minor safety upgrade that included curve softening, banking, and a light at the nearby intersection.
Hearings will determine what comes next
For residents, the hearings offer an opportunity to question the developers’ experts about projected traffic, driveway safety, emergency access, road capacity, lighting, drainage and how the projects may affect the surrounding neighborhood.
The broader question is no longer limited to a single building or subdivision. Together with the nearby synagogue project and continuing sewer expansion discussions, the applications show how quickly the East Veterans Highway corridor could shift from scattered homes and wooded parcels toward more intensive commercial development.
Readers can follow continuing coverage of Jackson Township, development and traffic from Shore News Network.
