Taft land in U.F. almost ready for development
Construction plan calls for just under 100 homes on 1-acre lots
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

The Upper Freehold Board of Health unanimously granted septic and historic pesticide approvals for a 96-lot subdivision at its April 11 meeting.

Ronald Taft owns the 275-acre parcel on Davis Station and Sharon Station roads, where the construction will take place. Each home will be situated on a 1-acre lot, while the rest of the tract will remain undeveloped.

Board of Health Chairman Dr. S. Perrine Dey said that even though the township has 3-acre zoning, there is a cluster provision in its ordinance that grants developers a 35-percent bonus density if they keep at least half of their property as open space or farmland.

Board member James Rosenbauer served as chairman of an ad hoc committee that considered the septic and pesticide issues of the tract. He said members of the committee met with Freehold Area Board of Health Officer Margaret Jahn.

The committee found that the proposed septic permeability meets the requirements of site plans even with the 1-acre lots clustered together, according to Rosenbauer.

Rosenbauer said the board received a "no-further-action" (NFA) letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the historic pesticides on the property.

Jahn said that even though many pesticides were detected on the Taft property, all of them fell under accepted DEP standards except for the arsenic, which was determined to have occurred naturally in the soil.

Deputy Mayor William Miscoski is serving as the Township Committee's liaison to the Board of Health while Committeeman Stephen Alexander is on duty in Iraq. Miscoski said that although he was not surprised that arsenic and dieldrin were found on the property, he didn't expect them to be below accepted DEP levels.

Miscoski, whose family owns the Cream Ridge Golf Club across the street from the Taft acreage, said, "Every piece of property in town has dieldrin or arsenic."

He also noted that the middle school site on Ellisdale Road and the new recreation fields on Wygant Road will have to undergo remediation for historic pesticides.

According to Dey, there is a belt of glaucomitic soils in the township, which tends to have higher historic pesticide residues.

According to the Rutgers University Web site, marl is a prominent soil found in many parts of South Jersey, and it is made up of glaucomite, clay, sand and marine fossils.