Manchester – Last Thursday, some Manchester Rehab Realty representatives introduced a fresh site plan for the establishment of a nursing facility in the Lareau’s backyard. The meeting was attended by some 450 people and one of them was Richard Lareau from Shorin Waywas.

As of June, the town’s Zoning Board of Adjustment has carried out four proceedings on the Lakewood-based Manchester Rehab Realty’s proposed establishment.

They would like to two build it along Ridgeway Road and they require a variance as well as an authorization of the site design before they could put it up in the residential area.

Adjustments taken into account last Thursday to the intended facility were: expansion of 16 feet to the hindrance that borders nearby houses on Shorin Way, as well as a reduction of 13 parking sports. The new site design also takes out 5,398 square feet from the initial proposal and also 80 beds.

Lareau stated of the new plan that it doesn’t make a difference. He said they are attempting to push a for-profit venture into a residential location. A father of two, he continued to say that he is against any commercial unit that wished to set up on the location at the back of his home.

There are a lot of available business buildings but they are pushing a variance within a residential neighborhood for this intention, he said, and people do not want to reside close to a commercial business.

Even though the suggested facility is not placed precisely in the backyard of Don and Concetta Shulman, the couple stated that they are so against the scheme. According to Concetta Shulman, she is so keen on it. She resides with Don in the nearby age-restricted neighborhood of Renaissance at Manchester. She said the scheme does not fit in children’s backyard.

Other oppositions, such as Lareau and the Shulmans, have stated that they are worried about who is going to be housed at the establishment and argue that the scheme will diminish the value of their homes.

However, Michael Thomas, Project Engineer, said that the scheme does not have anything to do with alcohol and drug rehab, a worry spoken by a lot of people. Attorney for the project Harvey L. York of the Toms-River-based Novins, York and Jacobus, stated that the establishment would be made up of 180 beds for patients who will need long-term care.

York also said that neither the mayor, the council, the board, nor the objectors hold the right to verify how to run a nursing facility or who is going to be housed there.

Thomas, from Wall-based Innovative Engineering, offered the sole professional statement during the proceeding, which took about 3.5 hours. Thomas revealed that the parking for the place would be mainly situated in the front of the establishment, far from neighboring homes, and that a safety fence about 10 feet high would be put up amid the facility and the homes.

Testimony from a traffic expert is anticipated to be provided on Nov. 10 meeting at 7pm at Manchester Township High School, 101 South Colonial Dr.

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