Visitation Church Planning to Develop Vacant Lots

Brick Township's planning board on Wednesday night approved a request by the Diocese of Trenton that will result in three vacant lots it owns between Laurel Avenue and Drum Point Road being combined into two.

Residents whose houses surround the two lots – which are located south of Visitation Roman Catholic Church – say they fear what the diocese and the church may have planned for the area.

The proceedings Wednesday night dealt only with the largely administrative issue of combining the lots on the tax map; plans for development of the lots will come at a later date.

"We intend to come back before the board with a site plan later this year, but we're not able to do that quite yet," diocesan attorney David Roskos told board members.

The measure Wednesday combined three lots totaling 34 acres of land into two lots – one 10 acre lot and one 24 acre lot.

Richard DeFalco, the engineer in charge of the project for the diocese, said when the lots are developed, they will be accessed from Drum Point Road and Laurel Avenue, both county roads. The lots will not connect to smaller, "tertiary" streets, he said.

Neighboring residents said they have received legal notices informing them that the diocese is planning a 7,000 plot cemetery at the location as well as a community center and possibly a mausoleum.

Many of those residents came to Wednesday's meeting.

Roskos did not elaborate at the meeting on the specific plan in the works, though he said whatever is built on the site would be "religious-based."

Roskos did provide some insight into how the diocese will try to minimize the impact on properties that, literally, surround the lots slated for development.

"Because our uses are church-related uses, we're going to wind up installing a 60-foot buffer around this site," he said.

"If the church sold this to a builder, and the builder came in to build houses, he could put lots in next to the existing lots that are there. You would not have trees and you would not have a buffer" Roskos continued. "I understand there are concerns here; we're trying to be sensitive to the local neighborhood while we develop our religious uses."

"Regardless of the entrance, it's going to affect everyone in this room," Crystal Delia, a neighboring resident, told board members.

"We're waiting for some architecturals to come back," said Roskos, explaining that the diocese intends to present a site plan to the board this summer.