BRICK – Julie Gaffney is one of the Breton Woods residents who was instrumental in saving the 32-acre parcel of natural land and preventing the construction of “The Havens at Metedeconk,” a development of 59 homes at the site.
The heavily-wooded property runs east of Laurel Avenue, and lies behind Osborn Elementary School and Visitation Roman Catholic Church, who along with the Trenton Diocese, owned the land and had an agreement to sell it to a developer.
Many of the residents who live in the area organized a nearly two-year “Save Breton Woods” campaign, attended multiple Planning Board meetings and got the attention of several environmental groups.
In January of this year, an $8.55 million deal was struck between the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Fund Advisory Committee, the township and the contract purchaser D.R. Horton of Texas whereby Ocean County would pay $6.84 million and Brick Township would pay $1.71 million for the property.
The township is on the hook for just $510,000 for the land since the Garden State Preservation Trust approved a Green Acres application for a $1.2 million matching grant. Now the parcel will remain in its natural state in perpetuity except for a six-acre portion behind Osbornville Elementary School where the township will construct a playground.
“Now I understand how [the preservation of natural lands] works,” said Gaffney from a recent Saturday morning cleanup of the woods, organized by the Township Environmental Commission.
“People have to pay attention to what is going on in their neighborhood,” Gaffney said before some 50 volunteers, who met in the parking lot of Osbornville Elementary School, grabbed buckets, gloves and trash bags before heading into the woods.
“Go to the meetings, see what’s happening in your town,” she said. “The Board listens to the people. If the neighborhood shows up, they’re going to listen to you.
“This property was saved by the neighborhood getting together,” Gaffney said. “Ryan Gittler, who lives near us, started a Facebook page, and then people saw the Facebook page and then we all started coming together – we had a rally in front of Visitation Church, and then I organized a meeting at the Breton Woods Clubhouse and Willie deCamp from Save Barnegat Bay came, and that was our beginning.”
“It was a big group effort,” she said.
Tony Kono, the volunteer chairperson of the Brick Township Environmental Commission, said the commission organizes about six clean-ups a year on township-owned property, including the Sawmill Tract, the Airport Tract, the Havens Homestead and township parks.
Brick Memorial High School social studies teacher of 32 years, Ann Marie Tarnowski, who is a Brick resident, brought about a dozen of her students from the Green Team and from the Key Club.
“The Green Team is all about sustainability, recycling – they have a whole program for their first year, they were just asked to start it, so this is our first event, ever,” she said.
Mayor Lisa Crate and Councilman Vincent Minischino came to the clean-up.
“I’m very excited about saving Breton Woods – you can see from the turnout from the community how many people are invested in this property and keeping it just as it is,” she said. “Now we want to keep it clean as well as keeping it green.”
The Environmental Commission is planning another clean-up for the site during the winter 2024.
