Lakewood's Eagle Ridge Golf Club: Letters, money pile up against development
LAKEWOOD - Just outside of Eve and John McNicholas' living room window is a rolling green fairway and controversy.
It's the 27-hole public Eagle Ridge Golf Club, an oasis of open space that has become ground zero in the battle over the township's rapid growth and future.
"We loved it until about a year ago," Eve McNicholas said. "Until all this nonsense started."
That's when it was publicly revealed the course had been sold. Months later, developer GDMS Holdings' proposed a plan for the parcel including 1,800 housing units.
Cue uproar from nearby homeowners, and other township residents, who fear more clogged traffic with every new bit of construction.
The site has become a sticking point in Lakewood's explosive growth and the centerpiece of a hotly contested master plan that will establish rules for that growth. Some expect the township of more than 100,000 residents to double in size by 2030.
Now, residents of one community are raising big bucks to pay for lawyers and environmentalists to protect their interests in the golf course. They've spent recent evenings signing letters to the state Department of Environmental Protection trying to keep a trimmed-down version of the development from going forward.
Their message: Leave the golf course alone.
"We moved here, basically, as retirees for serenity," John McNicholas said. "It was like that the first couple of years."
But it's changed.
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Hand-delivered outrage
On Thursday, Jim Campbell, a resident of the Fairways at Lake Ridge, hand-delivered more than 2,500 letters to state environmental regulators in Trenton. Campbell moved here seven years ago for a simple reason.
"I came for golf," he said.
Helping spearhead the effort was Rob Robison, another resident and a project coordinator for the Fairways homeowners' association.
"While there appear to be abundance of environmental and technical reasons to deny the permit application, NJ DEP is also obligated to consider other factors such as the impact on adjacent property owners and road congestion," Robison said. "These factors add to the list of reasons why the original denial of the (state) permit should be sustained."
Among their concerns is that a notice from the state does not specify that new construction must be restricted to residents 55 and older.
Robison, in a cover letter addressed to environmental protection Commissioner Bob Martin, said residents felt like the DEP overlooked their input and called the latest plan a "bait and switch" because the original project proposal included an age restriction.
Critics of the development expand beyond adjacent communities.
Earlier this month, the township council of Toms River, which borders the course, signed off on a resolution opposing the development in its latest version.
Read the story:Toms River: NJ should rescind approval for 1,000 homes at Lakewood golf club
And preservationists at The Sierra Club have also come out against the project, calling it a "surrender to developers."
When the residential development was first proposed in February, critics – largely senior citizens who paid a premium to live near the sprawling course – sent more than 1,100 letters in protest. Forty people spoke against the development at a public hearing in May.
Then in August, the DEP denied essential permits, citing potential traffic woes and threats to animal and plant life. It gave the opposition hope.
More:Lakewood golf course OK'd by NJ for over 1,000 homes
Not three months later, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced a settlement agreement with the developer, dropping the number of housing units by about 750 to just more than 1,000.
Cue history repeating itself.
Launching a letter-writing campaign
For at least five nights this month, residents of the Fairways at Lake Ridge – a roughly 1,100-home, age-restricted community off Massachusetts Avenue – have swarmed the complex's clubhouse.
The movement was sparked by DEP's announcement it had settled the issue with GDMS Holdings and would allow building on the golf course.
That plan as-is allows for a mix of single-family, duplex and basement residences. It includes five community centers, a clubhouse and two large retail buildings to go up at the southwest Lakewood site, according to the DEP.
Environmentally speaking, about a third of an acre of wetlands will be filled, but two acres will be added to a 41-acre plot of protected forest land.
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Michael Gross, a lawyer for GDMS, declined to comment for this story. But he has said the settlement was the result of negotiations and represents what is in the best interests of the community and the environment.
Some aren't so sure. One recent Tuesday, just before bingo night, about two dozen Fairways residents gathered to voice their concerns. They signed pre-printed letters to send to the DEP.
They believe they have not been heard, despite packing into township planning board meetings to voice opposition to the development.
They believe development will overburden infrastructure, namely roads, by tripling traffic. They argue the DEP has set aside concerns of the environment. And they question if the community they bought into for the beauty will be ruined.
Documents provided to the Asbury Park Press show some early residents of the community, built in the late-1990s, paid $50,000 for a home with a view.
A full-page advertisement praising prolific developers the Kokes family's ninth "resort life style community," the Fairways, ran in the Asbury Park Press one day before the community opened in 1998.
"Grand living. Grand lifestyle. Grand location. Grand links," the ad promised.
The McNicholas' moved in just four years ago from Middletown.
He's a retired electrician. She was a teacher. She keeps a picture on her iPhone: A large bird idling beside the fairway behind their home.
"We chose this community because of the backyard, we didn't want anybody in our backyard," she said.
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Raising money for a fight
The communities so oppose the development of the course at least one has committed to putting money behind the effort to hire planners and a lawyer to represent their interests.
A recent fundraiser by the Fairways group raised $12,500 for the effort, according to Al Longo, a Fairways resident who serves on the HOA board and also on the board of the Senior Action Group, a larger organization.
Starting in January, all Fairways residents will pay an additional $10 each month to help the effort.
"There was not a 'boo,'" Longo said of when the HOA's proposed to add the fee.
"The message is loud and clear. We're not going away and we're not giving up."
It's not known yet what long-term impact that persistence will have.
DEP is not required to hold a public hearing after giving notice of the settlement agreement, which was announced earlier this month, according to department spokesman Robert Geist.
But letter-writers won a small battle Thursday, when the state extended the public comment period on the settlement until Dec. 20, according to emails forwarded to the Asbury Park Press.
Within minutes of receiving word, Robison had proposed an email-writing campaign.
When that period closes, the state will determine whether to move forward with the settlement, revise it, or terminate it, Geist said.
Many nearby residents hope for the latter.
"Everybody that moved here, they'll tell you the same thing," said Patti Robison, who is married to Rob Robison. "Everybody that moved here, we said this is our last move. You're taking me out feet first. This is where we all planned on staying for the rest of our lives."
But that's changed, too.
Stacey Barchenger: @sbarchenger; 732-643-4245; sbarchenger@gannettnj.com