MANCHESTER – Members of the governing body said there was no new information on the development of the Heritage Minerals tract after the developers submitted a plan that the township didn’t like.
Residents expressed their concerns at the most recent Township Council meeting, asking if anything had progressed since the developer last came to the township.
“The property owners came to town several months ago,” Council President Samuel Fusaro said. “The new plan is not very favorable to the town.”
The property owner, Hovsons, Inc., met with Manchester officials in August with a plan for more homes on the former mining site.
The developer is also wrestling with environmental regulations, Fusaro said. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has declared that only about a fraction of the total property can be built on. The rest has to be left in its current state.
Mayor Ken Palmer said that Manchester had agreed to a settlement for 2,200 homes back in 2004. The difference now is that the developer has asked for more.
“We are still bound by that settlement agreement,” he said. If the developer wants to change the settlement, they will have to go through more environmental hurdles to do so.
