HARRISON TWP. — Farmland along Woodstown Road is opening for a housing development that envisions a half-dozen of its houses being built in neighboring South Harrison Township, if that municipality approves the idea.
Autumn Ridge would be a JPOrleans housing company project totaling 30 single-family houses, with 24 houses here and six in South Harrison. The project site consists of 71.76 acres in Harrison, all in a district where housing is allowed, and just over 25 acres in South Harrison.
On Aug. 15, Harrison’s Joint Land Use Board unanimously approved the necessary subdivisions and the site plan with few revisions from the proposal. Impacts on storm water runoff and preservation of trees were the two concerns residents raised during testimony.
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Testimony from the developer’s team focused partly on how wetlands, waterways and woods helped whittle down the 71.76 acres here to about 19 acres that actually are possible to develop. Those useful acres represent the area of the farm itself.
Attorney Damien Del Duca told the board that, as large as the site is, the environmental factors significantly affected the design. Rancocas Creek and a tributary border parts of the site. Most of the housing lots still exceed zoning minimums for the amount of acres in each, however.
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The project is not in an area designated for sewer service, so septic fields will be used for the houses. The township fire marshal has recommended extending public water service to the area through South Harrison, the board engineer said.
Del Duca said the developer still is working on what specific house models to offer.
In July, the South Harrison Planning Zoning Board determined the developer had submitted all necessary documents for the portion of the project in the township. The board is scheduled to hold a hearing on the actual site plan on August 28, Zoning Clerk Lawrence Moore said on Tuesday.
This story was updated August 20.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Housing proposal crosses Harrison border with South Harrison
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