On September 23, the Colts Neck Township Committee voted 4–1 to rezone three farm parcels for up to 864 homes. They are 68 Obre Road, WellSpring Stables at 318–322 Route 537, and 151 Dutch Lane Road. Two River Times gives a headline total of 171 affordable homes, though the site-by-site figures it reports add up to 181. Every member who voted yes said they opposed dense development. They voted for it anyway.
If you're comparing Colts Neck with Holmdel, Marlboro or Rumson, the reason for that vote matters more than the unit count. The township gave up three specific sites to keep control over everything else. For a buyer, that means the zoning map got a little more predictable, and three addresses on it are years of approvals away from becoming anything at all.
What the Vote Actually Bought
The vote bought immunity. Under New Jersey's affordable housing framework, a town that is in compliance is shielded from builder's-remedy lawsuits. Those suits let a developer go to court and get around local zoning. Colts Neck's immunity was set to expire September 30 unless the court found the township had rezoned the three sites as ordered.
Mayor Michael Viola put it plainly at the meeting, as Two River Times reported:
"We don't want to do this. We have to do this. If we don't, we lose immunity. Every other property beyond these three will be developed. There are developers who are chomping at the bit to come into Colts Neck and build on 537 and Phalanx and Montrose and everywhere else."
Michael Collins, the township's special affordable housing counsel, described the committee's goal as keeping the zoning power from being "pierced by the courts through builder's remedy litigation." Committee member John Tobia voted no on all three ordinances. He cited deed restrictions and environmental constraints.
The township didn't start out here. Its June 2025 plan claimed a "durational adjustment" for its entire Fourth Round obligation. That's an adjustment for towns without public sewer, and the plan said no new zoning was needed for that reason. Fair Share Housing Center, 68 Obre Owner LLC and Active Acquisitions LLC challenged that plan. On March 9, 2026, the court ruled that it didn't comply. The Planning Board adopted an amended plan naming the three sites on April 7, and the Township Committee endorsed it on April 8, under protest.
How an Obligation of 101 Becomes 864 Homes
The court set Colts Neck's Fourth Round obligation at 101 affordable units for 2025 to 2035, with no rehabilitation need. That figure doesn't explain 864 homes. Two other mechanisms do.
The first is the leftover Third Round balance. The amended plan applies the court-directed sites to the 138-unit Third Round balance as well. Obre covers 40 of those units, Route 537 covers 53, and Dutch Lane covers 45 of its 78. The Fourth Round's 101 gets covered by a mix: 33 units at Dutch Lane, extended affordability controls at The Grande and on existing rentals, and 13 units still assigned to the durational adjustment.
The second mechanism is how inclusionary projects get paid for. Township officials told Two River Times that developers typically build 80% market-rate homes and 20% affordable to make a project financially viable. Each affordable unit comes packaged with about four market-rate homes. That's why a few hundred units of obligation turns into more than 800 homes of zoning capacity.
Here are the three sites as they stand after the September vote:
| Parcel | Size | Max units | Affordable | Developer named in reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68 Obre Road | about 36 acres | 212 | 50 | March Associates Construction Inc. |
| WellSpring Stables, 318–322 Route 537 | about 172 acres | 263 | 53 | Active Acquisitions |
| 151 Dutch Lane Road | 38.9 acres | 389 | 78 | Active Acquisitions |
The figures have changed along the way. The April plan listed Obre at 204 homes with 40 affordable. Committee member Tara Torchia Buss said the governing body later negotiated a set-aside of roughly 25% on that parcel, along with added buffers and open space. That change is likely why the reported total of 171 trails the 181 the per-site counts produce. The final numbers should settle at the compliance stage.
For scale, the Census Bureau's 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimates about 3,722 housing units in Colts Neck, with a margin of error of 231. If all 864 homes were built, the township's housing stock would grow by roughly 23%.
Zoning Is the First of Several Gates
An ordinance sets the maximum number of homes a site may hold. It doesn't approve a project. The township's amended plan leaves road capacity and site improvements to later site-plan review. None of the three sites has a reported site-plan approval or construction start. Here's what has to happen first, roughly in order:
- The December compliance hearing. Two River Times reports a compliance hearing scheduled for Dec. 6. Officials plan to appeal the inclusion of the Dutch Lane and WellSpring properties.
- The Dutch Lane subdivision map. The parcel came out of a 2001 lot-averaging subdivision whose plat prohibits further subdivision unless specifically authorized. The township's own plan flags this as a possible availability problem. A group of Mockingbird Drive residents has hired counsel, who argues that the filed map effectively created a deed restriction.
- Wastewater and water. All three parcels sit outside sewer and public water service. The proposals rely on on-site package treatment plants and wells, which need water-quality-plan and well approvals. WellSpring has one more option, a sewer extension coming from the Tinton Falls and Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority direction.
- Buildable acreage. The township plan describes about 34.4 of Dutch Lane's 38.9 acres as free of environmental constraints. An engineer's report submitted by residents says wetlands, a C-1 stream and their buffers could leave as much as half the property undevelopable.
- Roads. Dutch Lane Road is County Route 46, two lanes with shoulders. Boundary Road is a two-lane rural road with no shoulders. The plan says neither road's capacity for 389 homes has been assessed.
- Naval Weapons Station Earle. WellSpring borders Earle's Normandy Road. The ordinance bars townhouses, stacked townhouses and multifamily buildings within 3,000 feet of Earle or Normandy Road, except as reasonably required to reach 263 units. Viola said the Navy recently expanded its recommended buffer along the rail corridor to one mile.
The WellSpring and Dutch Lane ordinances also cap each site's homes and allow on-site treatment facilities and wells. That puts the outer limit in writing, whatever ends up being approved.
The Map Was Already Moving Before September
The three farms aren't the only planned housing in town. The township's 2025 plan lists Colts Neck Building Associates' 360-unit rental development on Route 537, approved in 2021, and Countryside Developers' 68-unit project on Stone Hill Road, approved in 2024 and described in the plan as under construction.
There's also an older case on Route 34. In a decision dated July 24, 2026, the Appellate Division upheld the township's earlier Third Round settlement, which included a commitment of up to $2 million for sewer infrastructure serving affordable housing. NJ.com reported that 142 affordable units were slated for the Seta Realty site there. That case is separate from the Fourth Round rezonings. It shows that "no public sewer" hasn't held off development obligations in Colts Neck in either round.
Taken together, that puts new housing in Colts Neck at specific, named sites. With immunity preserved, the mayor's list of Route 537, Phalanx and Montrose stays under township zoning.
Reading a Listing Near One of These Parcels
The homes most directly affected are the ones next to the sites. Two River Times reported that residents in the historic Scobeyville section, directly across Route 537 from WellSpring, raised concerns about flooding, shallow wells and the loss of farmland. On the Dutch Lane side, Patch reported in April that neighbors had understood the farm parcel would stay a farm.
If a home you're considering sits on Obre Road, Route 537 near Scobeyville, or the Mockingbird Drive and Boundary Road area, read the actual ordinances. Watch the Planning Board agendas for site-plan filings, and follow the December hearing. The ordinance text gives the maximum density. The site plan, once one is filed, will show where buildings, buffers and treatment facilities would actually go. For a house on a private well, the well and water-quality approvals at the neighboring site are part of the same story.
Everywhere else in the township, the practical effect of the vote is continuity. As of September 23, the two- and three-acre pattern that drew you to Colts Neck is still governed by the township's own zoning.
FAQ
Is construction starting soon on any of the three farms? No site-plan approval or construction start has been reported. The township still faces a compliance hearing and plans an appeal on two of the sites.
Could the unit counts drop? Possibly. The ordinances set maximums. The Dutch Lane plat restriction, the wetlands questions and the Earle buffer are all still open.
Does this affect zoning on other Colts Neck properties? The point of the vote was to keep immunity from builder's-remedy suits, which leaves zoning for the rest of the township in the township's hands.
This post is general information about how New Jersey's affordable housing process works. It isn't legal advice, so please confirm how any ordinance or deed restriction applies to a specific property with a real estate attorney.
If you own near Obre Road, Route 537 or Dutch Lane, or you're weighing a purchase there, I'm glad to walk through what these ordinances allow and how buyers are likely to read them next to your property. Start with a free home valuation from Doreen DeMarco, and we'll build the conversation from there.
