Development too large for township

Asbury Park Press, Letter 1/23/06

The owner of 300 acres at the rear of Holiday Heights, a senior community in Berkeley, plans to build 281 single-family homes.

How will the proposed project affect the taxpayers of Berkeley? And how do similar projects affect taxpayers in the municipalities in New Jersey undergoing an assault of their resources at the hands of developers?

Nationwide, there are 1.5 children per household. It costs $10,200 to educate a child in the school system. This project of 281 households with 1.5 children per household equals 421 children. Do the math and we come to an approximate annual cost of $4.3 million. This does not take into consideration the possibility of having to build another school to accommodate these extra students.

If the new homeowners are charged $5,000 annually in real estate taxes, this will add $1.4 million in tax proceeds, or a net annual deficit of $2.9 million, before considering the added costs for municipal services, road systems, water supply and increased county taxes.

This is the oft-cited ratable race. This race is the path to more taxation. For Berkeley taxpayers, this is definitely a no-win situation. I urge residents to petition our elected officials to come up with responsible zoning regulations that will prevent these large-scale projects from happening.

Thomas J. Cervasio

BERKELEY