Our first entry is the happy news that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection denied a permit to John DeSimone, the developer contracted by Tilter Realty/Patty Copek/Marie Ruvo to build 38 homes (down from the 42 originally approved by the planning board) on a flood plain of the Third River along Liongate Drive (off of Broad).

If you go to the news section of the BTRA's website ( www.geocities.com/thirdriverbank/news1.html ) you can read the 5 page document which details issues the NJDEP found with the proposals to keep floodwaters from Katrina'ing the property.

After a 6 year effort questioning the wisdom of building homes on a flood plain of the Third River, the statement in the letter: "The Proposed Project does not meet the specific requirements as outlined below and is herein denied" is clearly music to our ears.

While the letter is definitely a good read, we will just highlight one of the graphs illustrating why the NJDEP said no:
"In response to the Department's previous guidance, the plans submitted with the current application proposed higher floor elevations for the townhouses but only provided a narrow swale behind the townhouses for the passage of flood waters through the project site. Due to the limited capacity of this swale and a lack of any supporting calculations to demonstrate that the swale would be able to safely pass floodwaters, the Department remained concerned that the project as proposed could create a very dangerous situation whereby there would be extensive flooding in the proposed streets and parking lots and that the flooding may also impact the townhouses. A review of [the] topography only solidified the Department's concerns that significant floodwaters from the River could indeed flow towards the project site."