ROBBINSVILLE: Buckley Lane area sewer project dumped

ROBBINSVILLE The Township Council voted down a $1.6 million project to bring sewer lines to 30 homes in the Buckley Lane area after many of the affected residents balked at the special sewer assessments they would have to pay.

The ordinance unanimously rejected by the council on Feb. 23 would have paid for the project by issuing $1.52 million in bonds, along with an $80,000 township appropriation as the down payment for the borrowing.

The $1.52 million in borrowed money plus interest would have had to be repaid through a special sewer assessment on the 31 affected property owners. (One lot is vacant township-owned land and the rest are private homes on Buckley Lane and Robbinsville-Edinburg Road near the high school). The assessment worked out to about $50,000 per home payable over 20 years.

The council introduced the ordinance in January under the apparent mistaken impression that they were doing what residents, many of whom have failing septic systems, wanted. But 11 affected homeowners who met with Council President Chris Ciaccio and Township Administrator/Engineer Tim McGough on Feb. 21, and then turned out two nights later at the council meeting, complained a $50,000 per home assessment, even if was payable over two decades, was too high.

That is a financial burden that most of us cannot keep up with, Justin Kinne, of Buckley Lane, told the council during the public hearing, which was held in the Senior Center to accommodate the crowd.

Sam Campi, another Buckley Lane resident, also spoke against the ordinance. Mr. Campi noted that only his septic tank was in need of replacement, not his entire septic system, so all he needed to spend was about $5,000.

If I was to change my tank, I can expect 25 years out of it, Mr. Campi said. Im 71 years old ... I dont need to spend $50,000.

The residents who spoke at the meeting said they would rather wait for the developer of the proposed Edinburg Village tract on Robbinsville-Edinburg Road to install sewer lines that the existing homes in the Buckley Lane area neighborhood could tap into without having to pay for sewer construction costs. The downside to this solution, however, is that Edinburg Village is probably not going to break ground for at least two or three years, perhaps longer.

Township Attorney Mark Roselli said at the council meeting the developer of the project is amenable to allowing Buckley Lane area homes to tie into the new sewer lines for free because he wants to be granted a housing density bonus.

A 2009 demographers report on projected housing starts in Robbinsville, which was prepared for the school district using data from the towns construction, planning and zoning offices, lists Edinburg Village as 49 single-family homes on Robbinsville-Edinburg Road and Meadowbrook Road. It was not clear how much of a density bonus the developer was seeking or how much the town might allow.

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ROBBINSVILLE: Buckley Lane area sewer project dumped