I'm glad the Committee sent the plan back to the developer for further details. However, at a high level the concept plan seems OK with plenty of buffers and open space. Not a bad start.

We don't need more homes, of any kind. We need a charming "downtown", were you can have coffee, a nice dinner and a drink. A place to meet/gather with other Holmdel residents. A place to bring the kids to play. I would love to see a little downtown charm.

The "charming downtown" concept is intriguing, and I'm not a big fan of building more homes, but a word of caution - One thing we should avoid is becoming a "magnet" which draws a lot of additional regional automobile traffic into the immediate area. A related challenge would be for a the downtown to be compelling enough to attract enough Holmdel residents so as to remain economically viable (we'd want to avoid the possiblilty of a future "ghost town" and the blight it could bring).

Somerset's current “Concept Plan” for the Lucent tract emphasizes the construction of new housing exterior to this tract's existing buildings. There are serious concerns with respect to this Concept Plan's proposed treatment of the permitted 185 Age-Restricted dwellings:

1) Their proposed size range (2,791 to 3,494 sq. ft.) is targeted to growing families (with school-age children) in the high likelihood that they cannot be sold in the Age-Restricted market.
2) These units are just not suitable for the Age-Restricted market (older couples or single people).

State law now gives developers with unsold Age-Restricted homes a loophole to removed such age restrictions, thereby permitting them to be sold to members of the general population at whatever price the market will bear. Somerset and its partners have certainly proposed a size range for their “Age Qualified Carriage Homes” to attract members of the general population.

From experience with elderly family members, I feel criteria for Age-Restricted dwellings include:

* safety, hence everything on a single floor to avoid falls on stairs - proposal's
elevations fail here.
* easy house keeping, hence a much smaller size range of about 600 sq. ft. to
about 1,200 sq. ft. - proposal fails here.
* mitigate impacts of utility failures, from this area's history of extended electric
power outages each Age-Restricted dwelling should have two
sources of energy - electricity and natural gas.

I don't think anyone is under any illusion that these homes will end up being age-restricted. Somerset built homes in the past, billing them as "age-restricted", and subsequently opened them up to the general public, and they will do it again in Holmdel.

This plan is certainly not in the best interests of Holmdel. I am suspect of the age-restricted homes being eventually turned into homes for the general population which will end up costing this town more than the tax revenue they will bring in. We
should require a cost/benefit analysis to ensure that the tax revenue being generated
by this new development will not actually be a negative due to the increased costs to our schools, police and fire and road maintenance. This does not take into consideration Mount Laurel commitments and the change of the character of this
town with increased traffic and population. We should be very suspect of a developer who went away when it was a less denser plan and came back after an
interim developer walked away (wonder why???).

We are looking for someone to contribute to our Local Voices section on the Alcatel-Lucent issue. Holmdel residents are looking to remain well-informed, from the voices of residents. If interested, just start writing! http://holmdel-hazlet.patch.com/blog/apply

Quite Frankly I wouldn't give you or your blog the time of day. It's all about getting people stirred up without any knowledge of what really is happening.
all you do is attract a venue for complainers
most people I know have stopped reading this junk

I don't the "rules" for age restricted homes, but I will say that in my old town, the age restricted homes were bought by seniors, but they rarely lived there. Instead their daughter/son's family lived there with there kids. This was the only way their family/kids could affordnto get into the school district. I wary, this would be the same situation here. And if they plan for seniors, but end up with full families (however it happens)...they aren't planning well. HOUSING is just a bad idea.

Nicole the more you respond the worse they get. just let them rant. they have been told like I have the town is building in safe guards against Somerset changing the development even though the law clearly states s they can no longer do it. I heard the town has 4 land attorneys working on this. By the way are we sure that Somerset is building the homes. People like Cooper attends meetings and hears what he wants to.
He is trying to stir up the public as a member of some land preservation organization but it ain't working

Of course it would be illegal to be given acceptance to build age-restricted housing and then sell it to non-age restricted. The point is that the builder goes back for an exception or variance (or whatever you want to call it) and ask to sell it to non-age restricted, because they don't sell. And when a town is faced with the option of vacant housing versus opening it up, the town chooses to open it up. WE DO NOT NEED HOUSING COMPLEXES in Holmdel. Certainly not in the heart of Holmdel's open space.

Mary Z, you are probably right. These people hear what they want to hear despite what is said publicly by members of the Township Committee and their professionals.

To all the people who don't want to see housing at Lucent, that is the only way any developer will come in and rehabilitate the building.

I WANT TO SEE MY TAXES LOWERED and if building senior housing helps to facilitate the project, then by all means do it.

To the Township Committee members: We put you in office to see to it that this project gets moving and while this concept plan may need some tweaking, we have faith in you to do the right thing for the majority of Holmdel residents.

@Nicole, is lowering your taxes your only motivation? I'll pay your $100 a year reduction, if that makes you feel better. My guess is you have another motivation, that's obvious.

So George tell me what your plan would be to rehabilitate the property and bring revenue in to the Town? I would love to hear it.

Mike James - no, they can't build anything they want there, it is currently still zoned commercial/ laboratory. There has not yet been a change to designate it residential and to determine what the allowable density would be. So if they want to build a big sports complex and aquatic center, a hockey ring, a tennis center, I'll bet they will have plenty of customers right from this town that currently go elsewhere for swim lessons, and swim team, and hockey, and tennis. They could build that and keep working towards an agreement on the housing portio, but the thing is, it is really the housing they want. And this developer was largely responsible for the master plan of Lakewood, a huge, poverty-ridden, hi-density,hi crime, failing public school district , cesspool of a town. And that is his home base, so if you think he has better things in mind for the fair citizens of Holmdel, you are greatly mistaken.

Been here all my life..cousin was once the mayor of holmdel...he was a farmer. I say raze the buildings,clean up the site,and parcel it out to create a huge local food source for nj....do we need more traffic in the area? Might be a simple idea but it sure sounds like no one will agree on anything else. nuff said!

I would love to see the building knocked down and replaced with smaller corporate office buildings.

The housing doesn't bother me, as 40 homes will not impact the schools. Although the senior houses are large, the larger the home = more ratables for the town with minimal expenses.

Mr. Cooper is flat out wrong with his post, but we expect that from him and his group.

This concept plan lacks details but is a good start.

George, although not mentioned in this article, 40 single family have been discussed for months. In fact, if you zoom in to the map above, you will see plotted out a number for each house. There are proposed 185 age restricted senior homes.

Nick J - I can hear your frustration with the pace, but the fact is that this developer is not spec ing out age restricted housing, he is proposing family housing. He is on record saying that " the bottom fell out of the age restricted market" when he was unable to sell his last development of large, multiple level homes to seniors. He quoted industry estimates that currently range from a 10 - 16 year inventory of 55+ housing. He appealed the age restriction, proposing instead to sell it to the typically large families of orthodox Jews surrounding area. Handily, he had already incorporated kosher kitchens into each house, and a ceremonial bath ( Mikvah) in the clubhouse. I am not sayin that is his target demographic here, but I am saying that he is under NO illusion that he can sell these homes as age restricted, so any proposal to do so is deliberately misleading or outright fraud. So, that is why I don't like seeing those units there - because he knows they are ultimately going to be something unpalatable to the community, and that is why he is not telling us what he really wants to sell, and to whom.

@Nicole Magnotti,

You mentioned "I attended a meeting last year where the Twp attorney point blank said that switching senior housing to regular SF family is now illegal and cannot be done with this development."

I have been poking around trying to find something that states that as law in writing but can't find anything specific.

The only things I can find are this 2009 Bill;
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/S3000/2577_R3.HTM

And this 2011 Bill that seems to amend the 2009 one;
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2010/Bills/S3000/2624_I1.HTM

Here is some more that is related;
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/PL09/82_.HTM
with the relevant section starting with;
C.45:22A-46.5 Conditions for change to a converted development.

This section spells out the conditions under which age-restricted housing can be converted so the question remains whether or not Somerset meets the criteria with the most notable one being;

" (1) preliminary or final approval for construction of the development has been granted prior to the effective date of P.L.2009, c.82 (C.45:22A-46.3 et seq.);"

As much as I would like to take the TWP Attorney's word for it, we would be better served if he could walk through the law to show us why it is illegal for Somerset to try and put what looks to be a "Trojan Horse" into the plan.

Robert, great points, but as Nicole stated the conversion of senior housing was already addressed by the Township professionals. I guess if the Attorney were to be asked again to walk through why it is illegal, I'm sure he would do it.

I can't remember who said it during the election, but one of the candidates said that this should also be in the developers agreement to really lock down the issue.

I also think that people are confused about Somerset's role in the home building process, as they will not be the builder of these homes....again the Mayor said that last year. So for people to imply some underhanded issue regarding Somerset, is just not correct.

Robert and Nick, I am not trying to sow the seeds of conspiracy, I am just saying plainly that everyone in the industry acknowledges that there is already far more age restricted housing than there is a market for it. We already have 2 senior communities in Holmdel and resales there are very slow. So it begs the question, what developer in their right mind would lay out money to spec houses that won't sell?

The only answer that appears to make sense is that they have a back door option that makes this appealing. As I said, anyone can sue for any reason at anytime, and even if a suit to overturn the zoning was apparently carefully planned against, a developer could still sue. And the town would have to spend money to fight the suit. Meanwhile, nothing gets built and the own lays out money.

When developers pressured legislators to overturn zoning on these communities, the bill that resulted applied only o communities already in the pipeline, and that window has closed. That isn't the same as making it " illegal" to appeal the zoning. It was like an amnesty program - and if they passed it once, who is ti say they won't do it again? All I am saying is the market is not there for senior housing, so either the developer has a trick up his sleeve, or instead of one empty office buildin, you will have several empty model homes and a bunch of unfinished holes in the ground.

Robert,

I don't recall all of the details, but he did explain why it is illegal. From what I can recall the time to do a "conversion" has lapsed and it can no longer be done.

I believe that everyone is on the same page in stating that nobody wants to see the age restricted houses converted to regular housing. As a community we need to make sure that doesn't happen.

Thank you to all the posters here who have contributed very useful information about this issue. As a Holmdel resident, I am also very concerned about the future of the Alcatel-Lucent property.

From 1985 through the closing of the building, my husband worked there. I was fortunate to see the glory days of the old Bell Labs, a very respected, world famous and prestigious institution among scientists and engineers. Thousands of patents in the computer & electrical engineering arena were created here. You could not be on the internet, using a cell phone or your PC without the science that was created within that building. It is sad to see the building sitting idle for so many years.

Tearing down the building and then constructing new buildings? Why not just use this wonderful building. There is plenty of room for several companies, office space, movie theaters, restaurant(s) etc. in the existing building. It's a quarter of a mile long, rises six stories, and has an interior atrium that is the length of the building that goes right to the top which is all skylight. The main level is an expansive open space. If you haven't been inside, then you have no idea what a wonderful space this building is. It is meant for a future that could make Holmdel a magnet for research/technical/business companies again. Eight thousand people worked there and it never felt crowded.

I loved that building also, and spent many hours in the library in the atrium while I was in graduate school. However. That building has serious indoor air quality issues, mold, and undoubtedly asbestos sprayed everywhere in the ceilings, as that was the fireproofing standard at the time. The HVAC was is outdated and very inefficient, and it would cost A LOT of money to bring it up to modern standards. The offices have no windows, but the rest of the space is one, open, dinosaur as far as heating and cooling.

I would rather see anything there that benefits the town as a whole, than trying to preserve an aging white elephant that may turn into a Trojan horse for something undesirable.