WALL TOWNSHIP — The Wall Township Planning Board met Monday, approving unanimously the El Ventures at Wall LLC application for a 194-unit age-restricted townhome community at 2854 18th Avenue.
This is the fourth time the planning board has heard the El Ventures application since August, 2024. The application is a part of a larger settlement between Wall Township and the Fair Share Housing Center that was last amended January 2024, and Wall Township and a developer, last amended January 2023. The settlement rezoned the lot at Block 800, Lots 22 (RR6) and 6.01 (OP2), on 18th Avenue, to AHR-14 (affordable housing). Known as the McDowell tract, it was split into dual ownership between the township and a developer.
The application calls for the construction of a 194-unit, age-restricted market-rate townhome development and clubhouse located at 2854 18th Ave., in Zone AHR-14, a zone created within the settlement. The 92-acre tract is located across from the Wall High School Athletic Complex.
The attorney for the applicant, Jason Tuvel of Prime Tuvel & Miceli LLC, on Monday summarized the changes made to the site plan since the last meeting in February.
Tuvel said that the applicant met with the township’s planning board professionals to go over the open issues from the last meeting, including sidewalks, crosswalks and trees along 18th Avenue; storm drain pipe location; potential odor from a pump station; garage space; an exit lane adjustment; winterizing fire hydrants; construction materials for rear yard deck ground posts; rear deck wood panels; and PVC on townhouse elevations.
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During public comment prior to a vote, two residents questioned if the board should vote on the application yet, with the township business administrator on administrative leave and a present need for more affordable units.
Chairman Richard Wonsala and Vice Chair Christine Shanklin both spoke prior to the board voting.
“For the benefit of the public, and the benefit of me, this was already approved as a project before it ever came to the planning board,” Wonsala said. “It’s part of our affordable housing agreement, it was decided on in court and it’s here in front of us to polish it, and you do the best job you possibly can to make it as good as we possibly can. We don’t have a choice. I don’t want to say it, but it is what it is. I live in town, too. I get it. It’s our job to make it the best ‘bad project’ we can make it. I don’t know what else to say, we are stuck with it.”
Vice Chair Shanklin spoke on the application as well.
“To be very honest, I don’t like to be put in this position,” Shanklin said. “However, I respect my position as a board member and the oath I did take, and we are all trying to do the best we can for Wall Township. Unfortunately, this is not what I believe was the town’s vision for this property. However, although I completely disagree with all of the housing that’s being brought upon the town, we do have a constitutional court mandate for our affordable housing obligations. All we could do is make this project the best we can for Wall Township. Otherwise, to be honest, I would have voted no on this application. Unfortunately, I feel that making the motion is the right thing to do in order to approve this, or have to put our town at greater risk.”
Settlement agreement
This application is a part of a larger settlement agreement in recent years between Wall Township and Fair Share Housing Center, last amended in January 2024, and Wall Township and a developer, last amended in January 2023.
The agreement allows the developer to develop this property as market-rate, with “affordable housing obligations satisfied elsewhere in the township,” and allows development of certain properties as “inclusionary developments, to assist the township with a portion of its affordable housing obligations,” with the creation of the AHR-14 zone by merging and rezoning the RR6 and OP-2 zones in Block 800.
The township had previously filed with the superior court “seeking a judgement of compliance and repose,” in the state’s third round of affordable housing, approving a constitutionally compliant housing element, fair share plan and related reliefs, in addition to filing a motion for temporary immunity, which was granted by the courts.
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