Zoning board demands firm Legends timetable

VERNON-The Vernon Township Zoning Board spoke loudly and clearly to attorney Tom Collins and other representatives from the Spring Creek Holding Company and Shinnihon, USA, co-developers of the current Legends Golf Club and Resort: no preliminary site plan approval unless a clear schedule of hotel renovation is included. The board agreed to delay its decision until Feb. 17, granting the applicants one additional meeting to amend their overall site plan and address lingering questions that have kept the project from moving forward. The board met in a special session last Thursday to hear the latest updates in a much amended site plan that has been before the board in various forms since 1988. Spring Creek Holding Company wants to build 372 high-end condominium units on the property currently known as Great Gorge Country Club. Issues of environmental impact, traffic flow, design, and of the renovation of the hotel were addressed by the developer and the board. The zoning board heard testimony from Vernon Township Environmental Commission chairman Craig Williams, who posed a series of questions to the project engineer for Spring Creek Holding Company, John Lehman. The Environment Impact Statement, written in 1988, is, according to the environmental commission, not relevant to the proposed development. Williams brought up a May, 2004 study by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection that found violations in the wastewater treatment plant located on the property. Lehman said that the plant was built originally in 1970 for the Playboy Resort - now Legends - and that two holding tanks were in substandard condition. One of the tanks, he said, has been fixed and the other is awaiting repair. The DEP called