Brick Zoning Board to Hold Hearing on Proposed Hotel

A proposed hotel, apartment and retail complex in Brick, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Brick Township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment will hold a hearing to determine whether Kamson Corporation, the developer of a proposed 103 room hotel complex with apartment and retail space, will require additional variance relief in order to build in the township’s mixed-use overlay zone.

The site is located within the hospital support zone on a triangular piece of property that fronts Route 88, Jack Martin Boulevard and Burrsville Road. Plans for the site include a 103 room Marriott Residence Inn, 66 apartments and 39,775 square feet of retail space.

The Board of Adjustment hearing comes after an attorney for an objector to the project filed a motion in Superior Court challenging the planning board’s jurisdiction over the case, arguing plans for the project do not comply with the site’s underlying zone and thus must be considered by the Board of Adjustment rather than the Planning Board.

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The hearing before the Board of Adjustment to interpret the municipal land use ordinance as it applies to the proposed hotel site will be heard Dec. 9. At the hearing, the board will be tasked with determining whether the municipal code sets conditions for building in a mixed use overlay zone that would apply in the case, and the specific conditions the hotel application would have to meet in order to be considered a permitted use.

If the hotel, retail and apartment complex is determined not to be a permitted use, the application would likely have to revert to the Board of Adjustment and would require a use variance – the most difficult variance to obtain under state land use laws. The project would have to comply with conditions for being granted a use variance and would also need the support of a “supermajority” of board members instead of a simple majority as required during a traditional planning board hearing.

The applicant, Kamson, may also seek additional interpretations of the ordinance, according to a notice filed on the hearing.

The project has proved controversial, with residents on neighboring streets lining up to oppose it over traffic concerns and worries about who would occupy the proposed apartments and extended stay hotel rooms.

The hearing will be held Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. at the township municipal complex. The hearing is open to the public.