Developer wants to use paper street Oak Lane as two-way access to Greate Bay housing project
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — The attorney for a housing developer asked City Council to amend an ordinance vacating a street that relates directly to the construction of more than 200 homes around the 18-hole Greate Bay Country Club.
The ordinance, No. 4-2024, was introduced Feb. 22 and scheduled for a second reading and public hearing March 14. It would vacate Oak Lane, a paper street that originally was part of the golf course lot.
Following its introduction, Keith Davis, representing R2F2 Inc., requested a meeting on the subject, noting that as written, the ordinance provides his client only 30 feet of width where 60 feet is required for both ingress and egress onto Somers Point-Mays Landing Road.
The Planning Board granted R2F2 approval on Feb. 15, 2023, to subdivide parts of the 132-acre property, as well as for site plans, to construct 117 townhouses and 42 affordable apartments at Great Bay West. Block 1943 Lot 1 was split into three lots. The board also approved subdivision of Block 1941.01 into two lots, as well as site plan approval, to build 51 townhomes to be known as Greate Bay East.
According to documents provided by the Planning Board, the eastern portion of the project has frontage on Somers Point-Mays Landing Road and Route 9 and is adjacent to the main clubhouse while the western portion front only Somers Point-Mays Landing Road and is within the existing golf course.
Davis noted the developer recently received approval for the project from the Atlantic County Planning Board, which recommended a 60-foot-wide entrance.
“I do want to ask if we can have further dialogue on the nature of the vacation,” Davis said.
He said law provides that the owner of each adjacent property takes title to the vacated area to the centerline of the roadway, which would grant R2F2 the rights to just half of the width.
According to the ordinance, the property abutting the other portion of the area to be vacated, to which title to the right of way will revert upon vacation, is a portion of Block 1945, Lot 2.02 owned by Boardwalk Development Co. LLC on one side of Oak Lane and Block 1944, Lot 1 owned by Richard A. Karpf on the other side of Oak Lane.
Davis said having only 30 feet would prevent R2F2 from providing ingress and egress to the development at that location.
“We’re proposing that be dedicated so it could be 60 feet with egress in and out,” he said.
Davis said R2F2 would fully indemnify the city and hold it harmless, as well as maintain the area through fixing potholes and plowing snow.
“We ask that this issue be sent to the Redevelopment Committee so we have an opportunity to review the plans again and make sure this is cleared up before action is taken,” Davis said.
City Council President Janice Johnston expressed a willingness to work with the developer.
The development will help the city fulfill its affordable housing obligation. Somers Point reached a settlement in 2018 with the Fair Share Housing Center that included a site called Plantation Bay to address a portion of the city’s obligation. Plantation Bay is the same as the Greate Bay Country Club site.
The settlement agreement anticipates it providing 75 affordable family units. While the proposal is for only 42 to be built, Plantation Bay has 33 surplus units that can count toward the obligation.
The Sentinel submitted an Open Public Records Act request to the Somers Point Planning Board on Feb. 16, 2023, for information regarding the project, which was approved the previous evening. That request was finally received Feb. 22, 2024.
According to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i), record custodians should fulfill a request as soon as possible but not later than seven business days after the request is received, provided that the record is currently available and not in storage or archived.
The Sentinel did receive a request for an extension in summer 2023 but it was long after the waiting period had ended.
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(i) further states that if the custodian fails to respond to the requestor within seven business days after receiving a request, the failure to respond will be deemed a denial of the request, in this case an unfounded denial.