Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ivins Avenue resident urges review of West Jersey housing proposal, cites flooding and safety risks
Summary
At the Egg Harbor Township meeting a longtime Ivins Avenue resident, identified in the transcript as Mrs. Justice, told the committee that proposed development PB2025-016 (reduced from 64 to 54 houses) threatens homes because of a high water table, argued the planning-board review was incomplete, and asked the township to require fuller engineering and hydrology analysis before approval.
Egg Harbor Township A longtime Ivins Avenue resident, addressed in the meeting as Mrs. Justice, urged the Egg Harbor Township Committee to press the planning board and the project developer for fuller study of PB2025-016, a proposed West Jersey housing subdivision. "It's to put...64 houses on West Jersey. Now it's reduced to 54 houses," the resident said, and described chronic water under her house, extensive basement flooding, and ongoing property damage that she attributes to a high water table in the area.
Why it matters: The resident said the parcel borders low-lying ground and historical drainage routes; she warned that runoff from a new development and a developer-proposed retention pond could worsen flooding for existing homes and that nearby intersections could present traffic-safety risks for children and buses.
Mrs. Justice described repeated local efforts to address the issue and said she believed the planning-board hearing lacked full documentation: "The planning board hearing is not done on that project...I got 2 weeks to save my life here," she told the committee. She asked the committee to make sure planning-board notice and engineer reports reach affected Ivins Avenue residents.
Committee engineers acknowledged the water problem and said they would verify topo/hydrology data. One official told the resident: "There is an issue of water out there...the retention pond that he thinks is gonna work may hurt you." The committee encouraged the resident to continue submitting documentation to the planner and to attend future planning-board meetings.
The resident also raised health and electromagnetic-field concerns about nearby high-tension power lines and questioned the use of planning waivers, saying professionals had not yet had a chance to weigh in. The committee closed the public portion after additional speakers and moved on to other agenda items; no formal township action on the development occurred that night.
Next steps: The committee said it would ensure engineers provide "complete separate information" and that planning-board dates and materials would be communicated to residents who asked to be notified.
