JACKSON – Testimony was heard during a recent Planning Board meeting concerning a plan that would create three private schools on a 13.5-acre tract on Leesville Road.
The Jackson Planning Board and the public listened to representatives of the applicant, Lees Village, LLC, who is seeking approval to construct two, two-story elementary schools and a two-story high school at 31 Leesville Road in a Neighborhood Commercial zone.
The applicant is seeking preliminary and final major site plan approval from the Planning Board but no decision was reached during a November 15 meeting. The application was carried over to the Board’s December 20 session at which time additional testimony will be heard.
Accreditation
Attorney Donna Jennings, of the firm Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer represented the applicant. Planner Ian Borden, traffic engineer John Rea, engineer Bill Stephens and architect Brian Flaherty are also expected to testify on behalf of Lees Village.
During the meeting Jennings noted that the application would not require any variances. She also said, “the law is very clear; a municipality may not discriminate against a private school if a public school is permitted.”
The issue of whether the school construction project requires state accreditation will also carry over to the next meeting. Jennings told the Board, “for now, I’m going to set that aside as I really don’t agree with your analysis. We are not required to have accreditation.”
“We are not going to go through the mental gymnastics of going through the factors of accreditation. If the state doesn’t require accreditation this Board doesn’t have jurisdiction to review accreditation. We are obviously not going to finish this evening so we can pick up the issue of accreditation at the next meeting,” she added.
The Plan
Borden, the planner, testified about the property where the applicant is proposing to construct the schools. “The property is currently developed with two single family homes and associated buildings in the front area and the rear portion is undeveloped. The Toms River is located off the property. The Toms River is category one water with a 300 foot riparian buffer and the buffer does overlap the rear of the property. We’re not proposing any development near that area.”
Borden said the project would require a permit from the State Department of Environmental Protection, but DEP representatives “have not yet been able to come out for a site visit to the wetlands area near the site.”
Borden also said the plan also included an access drive from Leesville Road as well as interior loop roads. Each of the proposed roads at the site would be able to accommodate buses and emergency vehicles. An emergency access to Leesville Road was also included in the proposal.
“We are aware there are public schools across the road,” Borden said. “The Switlik School and Jackson Memorial High School, both of which have bus traffic,” he added.
Borden noted the three private schools would each have staggered start and end times. The K-3 elementary school will begin at 9:15 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. The school building for grades 4 and up would begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. The high school would start at 8:45 a.m. and conclude the day at 4:30 p.m.
Those who attend the high school would not be allowed to drive to the school. Borden said both elementary schools require 75 parking spaces and the high school requires 85 parking spaces. The applicant is proposing to provide 85 parking spaces at each school.
Traffic Study
Rea, the traffic engineer, said during his testimony that his office prepared a traffic impact analysis concerning the proposal after an onsite visit. The traffic counts were taken on Leesville Road and on Veterans Highway, and turning counts were conducted at the Leesville Road intersection, Veterans Highway and Don Connor Boulevard at times when the schools would be active.
He said several traffic improvement areas were identified “in order to make sure our driveway to Leesville Road operates safely and efficiently and at a good level of service.”
There will be an improvement made to Veterans Highway. “This has been discussed with the Ocean County Engineering Department and as a result of that application, Veterans Highway will have some widening in some areas and restriped at Don Connor Boulevard and Leesville Road all the way to Cedar Swamp Road to provide for a two-way left turn across the entire section which will benefit all the driveways in the area,” Rea said.
The improvements would also benefit the Switlik School and the municipal building, he said. Concerning the plan’s driveway access to Leesville Road, “we will require a southbound left turn lane for Leesville Road traffic turning left into the site, and we will require a northbound right turn lane for traffic turning right coming up from the signal by the QuickChek at Don Connor Boulevard,” Rea added.
Rea said improvements are also necessary at a traffic signal at Veterans Highway. “We are going to have to modify the signal to include a southbound advance left turn phase at the intersection,” Rea said.
The applicant is also proposing additional improvement of a northbound right turn lane on Don Connor Boulevard for traffic heading north, coming from Jackson Memorial High School, and going east on Veterans Highway.
He also noted that data from the study revealed the 2018 and 2019 counts were slightly higher than the 2021 counts. “We used them as a basis for going forward with the traffic study because they were higher than the 2021 counts, but we also included a background traffic growth rate. We are going to be adding a substantial number of left turns; a lot of them will be made by school buses (and) that has been factored into the analysis.”
Rea told the Board that the traffic study takes into account a nearby mixed-use project that has received approval by the municipality. The mixed-use Port-Cohn project will have 30,000 square feet of commercial space and include 202 residential units.
He assured the Board that between the improvements the off-site intersection would “operate at acceptable levels of service during our peak hours, and our driveway will operate at an acceptable level of service. The overwhelming majority of the students will be bused to the site.”
Traffic Concerns
Residents who spoke during the meeting questioned and criticized the plan expressing concern on about the increase of vehicles that vicinity would see from the project.
Dawn Slay of Leesville Road said, “the numbers that you are giving out for the traffic are alarming on Leesville Road at the intersection. I lived in my house for 31 years. It went from a stop sign to a light. It is frightening in the morning to get through this intersection with high school drivers and with school starting at 8:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. we all know that Switlik runs then, when does the staff come in?”
She added, “you are talking about widening Leesville Road, the question was at what point on Leesville Road heading toward the residential properties on Leesville Road will the widening start?”
Slay was told that this would need to be worked out with the Ocean County Engineering Department who have standards concerning the length of both lanes that would have to be adhered to.
She reiterated her concerns about the intersection saying, “you are adding school buses which I’d like to know if they are running full year? Are another 30 buses going to be running year-round and will that effect my quality of life in my yard?”
Rea said the traffic study was done “under the assumption that the traffic would be generated at the same time that the high school and Switlik traffic would be generated. If it turns out that there will be sessions in the summer, the analysis assumes that it coincides with the Jackson schools so that is the worst-case analysis but I don’t know the answer to that.”
