The principal developer of Adventure Crossing, Vito Cardinale, has threatened to sue Jackson Township for enacting an ordinance last year that prohibits him from constructing 1,150 housing units on the property, which was first promoted as a major entertainment destination close to Six Flags Great Adventure.
Prior to selling it to new owners, Cardinale, the owner of Cardinale Enterprises, owned the Jackson Crossing shopping center. Since then, companies serving Jackson’s expanding Orthodox Jewish community have taken over the square. Clothing stores, a kosher pizzeria, a kosher juice bar, and other facilities for the growing community are recent additions to the plaza.
Cardinale declared Adventure Crossing to be a tourism destination with two hotels, a sports stadium, outdoor ice-skating trails, a conference center, dining options, retail establishments, and about 400 housing units based on that success. But for the most part, the website has fallen short of those expectations. The majority of the planned attractions have not yet been developed, however more than one million square feet of warehouse space has been built to date.
Township officials expressed worry when Cardinale recently looked for partners to assist with the development of 1,150 dwelling units at Adventure Crossing. According to Council President Jennifer Kuhn, she found out that Cardinale was trying to take advantage of a zoning regulation loophole in the township. By taking into account non-residential regions in addition to the land designated for residential use, the loophole enabled developers to determine housing density based on the Adventure Crossing project.
To address the loophole, Kuhn led the charge to draft a new rule that restricted Cardinale to the 400 units that had already been granted and required him to present a new design to the zoning board if he wanted to increase the density. The council passed the amendment 4-1 in spite of Cardinale’s threats of a $100 million lawsuit.
Cardinale made the case during a heated council meeting that the township would gain from his proposed high-density building, which would offer hundreds of affordable housing units. He said the council members who obstructed the additional 800 apartments were un-American.
During the encounter, Cardinale threatened to sue him. They will be six-bedroom apartments when I see you, not two-bedroom ones. I hope you get out of the United States of America, he said, continuing his tirade. You are not Americans, and I pray you leave this nation!
Aside from an indoor golf course and a sports complex, the project, which originally included for hotels, a convention center, and sports fields, is still largely unfinished. Concerns about the effects on traffic and infrastructure have increased among local politicians and citizens as a result of Cardinale’s campaign for high-density construction.
According to Councilman Mordy Burnstein, Jackson has won this. In an area where the builder had promised a future full of business and leisure opportunities, we are introducing this ordinance to stop an urban-style development in the vein of North Jersey.
Kuhn stressed how crucial it is to preserve the township’s suburban feel. She stated that we must defend our village against unruly developers who wish to turn it into a little city on that location. Before someone tries to take advantage of this weakness and make matters worse, it needs to be fixed.
The council’s moves are viewed as a preemptive attempt to protect Jackson from future development pressures, even though no official applications for high-density housing have been submitted to the township’s planning or zoning boards.
Once promoted as a haven of entertainment, Adventure Crossing today runs the risk of turning into a battlefield over dense housing and suburban preservation.
