Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Dear Neighbor:

As we move closer to the upcoming scheduled meeting dates for the Zoning Hearing Board of November 9^th and 17^th, we wanted to provide an update regarding our application for development at Ashbourne.

At the September meeting of the Building & Zoning Committee, we agreed to the suggestion to delay the Zoning Hearing Board dates to November 9^th and 17^th.   Given the complexities of the application as well as the heightened public interest in the project, both we and the Building & Zoning Committee thought it prudent to provide additional time for the Township to retain both an independent traffic consultant and an independent land planner to assist in reviewing the application and its supporting submissions. Since that time, the Township has hired both consultants with the primary focus to date being on the land planning.

Since being retained, we have provided the Township's independent consultants with all the information that they have requested and complete access to the development site and our professionals. We understand that the consultants have been asked to meet with us, members of the township staff and professionals and will soon be meeting with other constituents of the process.  We accept and support the objective of the consultants to fully understand the site and to shape a comprehensive plan that can be largely accepted by the Township, its residents as well as Matrix. While we continue to believe in the overall vision we have set forth in our current plan, we are open to reasonable alterations to that plan in the interests of achieving this goal.

It is clear that that this process is unlikely to be completed before the November 9^th meeting of the Zoning Hearing Board and quite possibly the 17^th as well. We accept, therefore, that in the interests of the goals outlined above we plan on attending the November 9^th meeting to seek an additional continuance.  Assuming the continuance is granted we anticipate being heard in the December meetings of the zoning hearing board which are currently scheduled for December 14^th and 22^nd.

Additionally, as many of you know, our application is comprised of two distinct parts. The first and larger component is the “Active Adult Community”, referred to as the “Age Restricted Zone” portion of the project. The second is technically referred to as the “Preservation Overlay Zone” which includes the 96 market rate carriage homes that front the north/south portion of Ashbourne Rd.  The Preservation Overlay Zone of the project has consistently raised more concerns for all parties. These issues include neighbor opposition to the number of homes, the home types and layout of homes, community concerns to the impact of market housing on the school budgets and local traffic. Lastly, it is clear that the Preservation Overlay Zone complicates the entire application from a legal aspect given the nature of the zoning relief required. We are currently reviewing this application and are developing some alternative concepts for the "Preservation Overlay Zone" portion of the site. We intend on exploring these alternatives simultaneously with the work being performed by the Township's professionals. 

In the interest of separating and simplifying the issues raised in this application, we will withdraw the "Preservation Overlay Zone" component of the plan and the related relief requests from our pending application.  In the near future and in conjunction with input from the Township's independent planner, we hope to develop a new plan that complements the pending application and plan for the Active Adult Community.  Please take note that this does not mean that we are not willing to make changes to the pending "Age Restricted Zone" application. On the contrary, we welcome and intend to fully cooperate with the Township's review of the entire tract.  

We will continue to send out updates as this process continues.

Sincerely,

Donald M. Epstein