Black Oak Golf Gets More Time for Construction

The Black Oak Golf Club will have more time to finish consrtuction projects, the Washington Township Planning Board agreed Monday night.

The board had already given the club an extension to June 27 but members agreed to allow more time after hearing a status update Monday.

Attorney Mark Blount, representing the club, told the board several construction and maintenance projects have been completed since that May meeting. Those include the spreading of topsoil near the second and 10th holes of the golf course, the installation of a light pole in the club’s overflow parking lot, the transfer of funds into an escrow account, and various landscaping, seeding, and planting throughout the property.

Blount said those demonstrate progress by the club.

“I believe, on the last juncture, [the deadline] was extended for the time necessary to complete that process [of construction and maintenance projects],” said Blount. “I only share that information as an update of where we are in our efforts in that regard.”

Chief among the still-unfinished projects is the connection of the club to the township’s sewer system, and NJDEP approval of the project, which is projected to take until the beginning of June 2012.

Board engineer Leon Hall said the golf club will be permitted to use its current holding tanks as a wastewater management system until the connection to the sewer line can be made.

Under the new extension, the golf club still needs to obtain by a Sept. 15 deadline a certificate of occupancy for its Turf Care center, as well as a letter of approval from the Morris County Soil Conservation District.

“Verbally, (the county has) approved it,” Blount said.