ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ-Residential developer K. Hovnanian Enterprises last night unveiled a proposal to redevelop a seven-acre waterfront site as a residential community with a total of 42 units. Of the 42 units, nine would be set aside for low-income families, company officials told the local planning board. The proposal also calls for a clean-up of the site, which is currently in private hands and in use as a boat storage yard.
Company officials estimate that the site remediation will cost at least $2 million, but have not released a projected construction cost of the project itself. The proposal is actually smaller than an earlier one that called for close to 90 condo units on the site. With its latest proposal, the Red Bank, NJ-based K. Hovnanian specifically applied for site variances involving density and bulk.
An alternative proposal, which was floated recently, would involve utilizing the site as open space. Local officials have said that they may apply for Green Acres funding to clean up and preserve the tract.
"Some individuals feel that it should be cleaned up and converted into a park," Barry McCarron, regional president for K. Hovnanian, confirmed at the planning board meeting. He also asserted before the board that the latest proposal arose "after our meetings with residents and other local groups."
And as far as the park proposal, "we are not in that business," McCarron said. "We are in the business of building homes." No schedule for further board hearings on the proposal was released.
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