Crack Filling Scheduled – No Parking
ROAD WORK SCHEDULED – TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2011
Please be advised that all vehicles must be moved from the 13 court driveways in our community, on July 6, 2011, as all driveways will be crack-filled starting at 8:00 am.
Any cars that are not moved will be towed onto Riverbend Drive or Hidden Lake Drive in order to allow for this service to be completed.
Any towing costs to move non-complying vehicles, will be billed to the vehicle owner’s account who did not comply with this request.
PLEASE BE SURE TO MOVE ALL CARS FROM ALL PARKING SPACES IN THE DRIVEWAYS BEFORE 8:00 AM ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2011.
RIVERBEND TOWNHOUSE OWNER’S ASSOCIATION
Administrator’s note – The above notice, in one form or another, was distributed at least twice by email and once by snail mail. To me, this is an indicator that the Board and EPM continues to have little faith in the ability of their official community Web site and attendant email communications. Remember, they said as much in their Riverbend Activity Report published here March 19 of this year. You really should visit and use their site, y’know. They’re trying to do the Right Thing, and the best way to help them to do that better is to tell them what what you like, what you don’t like, and whatever else is on your mind.
Garden of Eden
On a recent project, I ran across a remarkably well-preserved copy of a Home News supplement from the North Brunswick Bicentennial, which featured an article about Hidden Lake. Construction was still underway at that time. Riverbend, which was part of the Hidden Lake project, hadn’t yet been built, although it does get a mention in the article.
I wish there were more pictures. Those of you that are interested in township history – as I am – may get a kick out of seeing this, originally published Thursday, July 5, 1979.
Builder Proud of Hidden Lake
By JEFFREY BRODY
Home News staff writerNORTH BRUNSWICK — In the late 1960s, Nathan Kaplan, a leading developer in Middlesex County, became disenchanted with building single-family homes on flat, shrubless postage- stamp sized lots.
Kaplan envisioned a new type of planned community, one that would blend a mixture of housing — apartments, townhouses, patio houses and single-family homes — in a wooded surrounding.
THE NATURAL WET LOOK - Natural rock ledges around the apartment complex's swimming pool is one of the touches that Michael Kaplan cites in calling his 1,000 home development in North Brunswick one of the finest in the metropolitan area.
After looking at various locations, Kaplan chose a 315-acre parcel between Routes 1 and 27, extending from Cozzens Lane in the north to Woodmere Road in the south. He named the development after its most scenic landmark, Hidden Lake. The lake, in turn, gained its name from being virtually inaccessible except on foot, and unknown even to many longtime residents.
Kaplan died in 1975, three years after construction began. Although he didn’t live to see the 1,000-home project completed, he left his imprint on the plans.
The 313 single-family homes, 220 townhouses and 550 apartments have been designed with Kaplan’s original concept in mind. The buildings are interspersed between recreational areas and parklands.
“The development means the most to my family. Hidden Lake’s a monument to my father,” said Michael Kaplan, 40, who, along with his younger brother, Morris, manages the family construction company, Kaplan & Sons.
The firm was founded 25 years ago, after Nathan Kaplan, a survivor of the holocaust, settled in America. Kaplan considers Hidden Lake the finest development of its kind in the New York- New Jersey metropolitan area. The luxury homes sell from $100,000 to more than $250,000, the townhouses from $70,000 to $90,000, and the apartments rent from $385 to $700 per month.
But Kaplan insists the price of the homes is not what makes Hidden Lake a unique community — it’s the integration of the housing, the idea of putting a $200,000 home a few blocks away from an apartment or back-to-back with a townhouse.
“We’re not afraid to build a $250,000 home next to an apartment because of how we’ve designed the community,” Kaplan said. His pride in it was evident on a recent tour of Hidden Lake, now in the final phase of construction and expected to be finished in two to three years. Still to be completed are some apartments, townhouses, patio homes and a boutique shopping center.
Pointing to the shrubs that grace the main entrance to the development on Route 27, Kaplan, who is usually hesitant about talking to reporters because of what he views as unfair newspaper coverage of some of the problems the development has had, came alive. “Take a look at our entrance and the entrance to any other development and you’ll get an understanding of our approach,” Kaplan said. “The trees mask most of the apartments and homes from view, they set a mood, you’re not looking at barren openness.”
A few feet from where he spoke was a stone well, no longer functional, but a decorative remnant left from the time the property was farmland.
ATTENDING TO DETAILS - Construction continues on the California-style townhouses of Hidden Lake, with the Belgian block curbs, slanted roofs, casement windows and specially designed chimneys fireplaces will be featured.
As the car approached the apartments, Kaplan pointed out that the development has been landscaped so the parking lots are not visible from the main road, Hidden Lake Drive.
A small man, who’s fit and tan from supervising construction, Kaplan seems to be forever in motion. Throughout the interview and tour his arms never stopped waving one way and then another as he pointed out detail after detail of the project.
Dressed in a sports shirt and chino work pants, Kaplan looked more like a laborer than the boss. And it’s apparent he gets his hand into every facet of construction. On any given day he’s more likely to be found in the construction trailer than in the model home office.
Although Kaplan shuns publicity, he’s probably his own best public relations man. When talking about Hidden Lake, his blue eyes twinkle and his voice fills with pride. He says he’s built close to 10,000 housing units, but this is his favorite project.
The love he has for the development comes out in the attention he pays to design. “Almost every single home on Hidden Lake Drive is different,” Kaplan said. “You won’t see the same house on either side.”
Later, a member of Kaplan’s advertising staff explains that the developer had purposely sold 20 lots on Hidden Lake Drive to other builders, to make sure there would be a variety of designs.
Repeatedly he showed how the homes, built on looping roads, were bordered by parklands and extensively landscaped with trees and shrubs.“You don’t get a massive look at Hidden Lake,” Kaplan said. “The loops of homes are divided by fingers of parklands.”
At the entrance to Point of Woods Drive, Kaplan smiled at a home that he had personally “set” into the contour of the land.
“The home fits perfectly,- Kaplan said. “It belongs there on the rise.”
He added that he also varied the setbacks of homes to give a wider spatial appearance. “At other developments you could shoot an arrow and it would go straight down the line,” he added.
“What we have done,” Kaplan said, “is taken an open piece of land and created something that fits in.”“Even the streams have been preserved,” Kaplan added.
As the car passed by a group of townhouses under construction on Chase Drive, Kaplan said after the single-family homes, apartments and townhouses have been built, he would construct 140 patio homes, which are attached single-story homes.
Kaplan prides himself on the small details of his housing stock.
The California-style townhouses, for example, have slanted roofs, casement windows and specially designed chimneys and fire places.
By the side of one of the apartment buildings, Kaplan looked at a six-foot stone wall and said, “we could have done it in brick and no one would have noticed.”
Other features in the apartments are interior rock gardens, skylights and sunken living rooms. The quality of the apartments and townhouses allows them to be built next to the single-family homes without owners of the latter objecting, according to Kaplan.
“The apartments are among the top five garden apartments in the United States,” Kaplan said.
“When Hidden Lake’s finished, it will be a garden of Eden,” Kaplan said. “The mixture of people here have the opportunity of creating a community among themselves.”
However, Kaplan acknowledged that in the process of creating a luxury development he has alienated some of the residents.
Residents and township officials over the last decade have complained that the developer doesn’t clean up construction sites and deviates from original plans, building two recreation clubhouses, for example, instead of one.
Last fall residents also protested when Kaplan applied for a variance to convert the health club at Hidden Lake into a public health spa. The builder finally withdrew the application.
Kaplan considers the uniqueness of the development a major reason why it’s been controversial. “Once people have seen the whole thing put together they will understand the plan,” Kaplan said.
“You must understand we have goals — this is a monument to my father, his concept, his vision — we know what the job should look like.”
“If we didn’t believe in what we are doing,” Kaplan added, “we wouldn’t be here. We’re very much interested in doing the job right.”
Recycling
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There is a recycling pickup today.
The pickups of plastic, glass, newspapers, and cardboard usually occur between 8 AM and 10 AM on alternating Thursdays. Riverbend is in Zone 3.
As of October 2007, North Brunswick’s recycling materials were picked up by Central Jersey Waste and Recycling, Inc. of Trenton, NJ. You can reach them at 609-656-4200.
Learn more about Middlesex County’s Solid Waste Management programs, including the schedule for Household Hazardous Waste Days.
Please be a responsible citizen and recycle!
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