The Oldest Home in Neptune Township, NJ – 1017 Old Corlies Avenue in Jeopardy
Over 200 years old and built one year after George Washington became our nation’s first president, the DeWitt Shafto House stands at 1017 Old Corlies Avenue. Dating from 1790, it is documented to be the oldest house in Neptune Township. It features distinctive 18th century construction: hand-hewn ceiling beams, wattle-and-daub walls, and mortise and tenon joints. This beautifully restored home is in danger of standing only 30′ away from the proposed car wash lubrication facility that was approved by the Neptune Board of Adjustment in 2007. Many incursions were created by this approved application. Among them: The old growth trees that line the driveway including all the greenery and old growth trees on the property of 1019 Old Corlies Avenue that serve as a natural buffer from Route 33 for the residential community of Hamilton are proposed to be destroyed if this car wash lubrication facility is built.
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When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, “See! This our fathers did for us!”
~ John Ruskin
19th Century English author, poet and artist
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THE GROSSLY ILL-CONCEIVED STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN AS APPROVED BY THE NEPTUNE BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
On August 6, 2006 the 1019 Old Corlies Road LLC made application to the Township of Neptune for a permit to build a car wash / oil change /lube facility adjacent to Route 33 on property slightly less than an acre that is bordered on the south by Old Corlies Avenue. On March 7, 2007 the Township`s Board of Adjustment (BOA) began a series of three hearings which culminated with their approval of the application on July 18th, 2007 and its memorialization on September 19, 2007.
A short history of what happened during the hearings as related to stormwater management seems appropriate at this time. At first, the applicant proposed to concentrate the runoff and discharge it onto the surface of Old Corlies Avenue. The BOA found this unacceptable and before the hearings told the applicant that to have a chance for approval he would have to agree to construct some 610 feet of underground storm sewer with multiple inlets from its site along Old Corlies Avenue. These inlets would then connect to an existing storm sewer at the head of Gully Road which empties directly into Shark River Brook, an FW-2, Trout Maintenance, C-1 Classified Waterway. It is important to state at this point that the section of Old Corlies Avenue for which the storm sewer is proposed has never had a drainage problem or had need for a storm sewer. 
The effect of this mandated storm sewer plan is to increase the runoff from that coming from less than an acre (i.e., the car wash / oil change / lube facility site only) to that coming from more than fourteen acres (i.e., including the car wash site / oil change / lube facility, a high risk gas station with a documented contamination problem, more than 600 feet of the macadam-paved Old Corlies Avenue plus numerous paved driveways and acres of lawn etc.). The affect of this decision by the BOA is to allow a profound impact upon Shark River Brook and its downstream estuary as well as damaging and inconveniencing this historic community with construction of an unnecessary storm sewer.
Use of the Wells Brook alternative, which was never looked into by the applicant or the BOA, involved connecting to an existing storm sewer some 75 feet downgrade from the car wash site property and some 10 feet off the pavement along Route 33. This storm drain empties into Wells Brook (FW-2, Non-trout) at the head end of a large (possibly two acres)storm water detention / infiltration basin that was constructed about ten years ago. The township ‘s advising engineers who sat with the BOA at that time should have investigated the site, known of this alternative, and advised the BOA of this more appropriate way to handle the storm water so that it would have minimal impact. These actions or inactions by the BOA ( despite this more environmentally sound, less expensive, and more publicly acceptable alternative) presented an ultimatum to the applicant i.e., you must agree to building this infrastructure if you hope to get approval of your application. Thus, since the applicant agreed to build the storm sewer, a possibly illegal quid pro quo deal was entered into.
It is OCAPA’s contention that the BOA acted contrary to existing laws, rules and regulations (some of which are their own) in the way it handled this stormwater management matter. The BOA or its advising engineers fabricated a nonexistent storm water problem along Old Corlies Avenue in an attempt to justify an unjustifiable need for construction of an extensive storm sewer infrastructure. And, in so doing, enabled the BOA to approve the application to build a commercial car wash / oil change / lube facility on an undersized lot in a C-5 zone where it is not otherwise allowed.
Our contention is based upon the following:
On June 14th, 2004 the Township adopted Ordinance No. 04-23, which amended and supplemented the Land Development Ordinance of the Township of Neptune by adding Section 528 entitled Storm Water Management and adding Section 811.01 entitled Environmental Impact Statement. The application for the car wash / oil change / lube facility was made August 11th, 2006; therefore, it should have been subject to the provisions of the ordinance.
Also relevant to this matter is the fact that Shark River Brook was classified C-1 in June 2005 by the State Department of Environmental Protection. This, again, was well before the application for the car wash was made and should have been taken into consideration during the BOA’s deliberations.
Section 528.1 states that the ordinance is applicable to any site plan. Section 528.2G8 addresses Category 1 Waters as “Special Water Resources Protection Areas” and sets forth where they are and their purpose. Section 528.1 et.seq addresses storm water that arises outside these areas and what standards they must meet to prevent any degradation of the C-1 waters. Furthermore, the Township’s ordinance spells out how specific sources of stormwater are to be handled and it defines “major development” as any development that provides for ultimately disturbing one or more acres of land or increasing impervious surface by one-quarter acre or more.
All of these rules, regulations, etc. were in effect well before the application for the car wash was made, except for the Township’s Municipal Stormwater Plan which became available to the BOA April 2007, only 24 days after the first of the three hearings were held, and should have been but was not taken into consideration before they made their final decision to approve the application on July 18th, 2007.
Filed under Stormwater | Tags: 1019 Old Corlies Road LLC, C-1 Classified Waterway, DEP, Department of Environmental Protection, Felix Bruselovsky, FW-2 Trout Maintenance, Monmouth County, Municipal Stormwater Plan, Neptune Township, Neptune Township Board of Adjustment, NJDEP, Old Corlies Avenue, Quid Pro Quo, Route 33, Shark River Brook, Stormwater Management, Wells Brook Apartments | Comment (0)
