Meeting called to order by Chairman Gilbert Foulon at 8:28 P.M. with a salute to the flag.
ROLL CALL:
Joseph Graceffo David
Slater
Mayor Warren Hagstrom Eugene
Verba
Tony Brindisi Thomas
Balunis
PRESENT: Attorney Steven Veltri, Engineer Michael
Cristaldi
Reading:
Open Public Meeting Announcement:
This is a Regular Meeting of the Wanaque Borough Planning
Board and adequate notice has been given and it has been duly advertised by the
placement of a notice in the Trends and the Herald & News, mailed on
January 17, 2003 and a notice thereof has been posted on the bulletin board in
the Municipal Building in the Borough of Wanaque and a copy thereof has been on
file with the Borough Clerk.
MINUTES: from the May 15, 2003 Meeting.
MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member Slater, seconded
by Mayor Hagstrom, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Mayor Hagstrom, Platt, Slater
and Balunis. Members Graceffo, Brindisi and Verba abstained.
COMMUNICATIONS: No questions asked.
APPLICATION STATUS: Eng. Cristaldi said the only
application is the one on for this evening which is “RSK Development Corp.” and
is still waiting to hear from “Sassafras Properrties, L.L.C.” with regard to
the lighting for the proposed sign.
The Board Secretary told the Board she was contacted by
Atty. Michael Rubin with regard to this application and asked to be carried to
the July 17th Meeting because the revised drawings weren’t ready.
Atty. Rubin was in the audience and stood up and announced that the revisions
couldn’t be done in time for tonight’s meeting and will be ready for the July
17th Meeting. Atty. Rubin also agreed to extend any time limitations
to the Board.
NEW BUSINESS APPLICATION: “Yoga Synthesis” (Yoga
& Movement Studio), 909 Ringwood Ave., Block 305 Lot 9. Owners of building are Livia & Dennis
Deak and owner of business is Raj Thron.
No one came forward on this application. Chairman Foulon said he didn’t see any reason why they needed the Planning Board approval since this building was being used as a dance studio and the Yoga & Movement Studio fall into the same category.
All inspections are in compliance.
MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member Graceffo,
seconded by Member Platt, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Members Graceffo,
Mayor Hagstrom, Brindisi, Platt, Slater, Verba and Balunis.
APPLICATION #16-02 “RSK Development Corp.”, Mountain Ave., Block 240 Lot 14. Application for Preliminary and Final Site Plan Approval to allow the construction of 18 Townhouse Dwelling Units. Authorized Agent is A. Michael Rubin, Esq.
Atty. Rubin came forward on behalf of the applicant and said this application is a continuation from the last meeting.
Chairman Foulon announced that if they receive any
approval tonight, it would only be preliminary and nothing else and at a later
date for final. Atty. Veltri said to Atty. Rubin that he knows there was some
unofficial testimony at the last meeting and the application was deemed not
complete at that meeting because an environmental study was missing. Atty.
Veltri went on to say, that study has been submitted and to be procedurally in
order, Atty. Veltri recommended a vote be taken to deem the application
complete as of tonight.
MOTION TO DEEM THE APPLICATION COMPLETE AND SETUP A
PUBLIC HEARING FOR TONIGHT: made by Mayor Hagstrom, seconded by Member
Brindisi, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Mayor Hagstrom, Brindisi, Platt,
Slater, Verba and Balunis. Member
Graceffo abstained.
Joseph Gerard Marra, Jr., received his degree in 1977
from the N.J. Institute of Technology and received his license in March of
1981, practicing as a principle in the firm since 1986 as Licensed Architect
and Landscape Architect Planner at 7 Waterloo Road, Stanhope, N.J. Mr. Marra
also has served on a Planning Board for over 23 years and has licenses in 9
different states.
Mr. Marra showed the most recent set of plans on the
easel dated March 6, 2003 and a subsequent revision dated of the site plan
dated May 28, 2003. Mr. Marra explained this is a 2 ½ acre site located on
Mountain Ave. and there is a Key Map showing the property in relation to the
neighboring streets. Eng. Cristaldi
said the Board has SP-1 dated 4-28-03, but it’s missing the Zoning Map. Mr.
Marra
apologized and said it was put on the original submission
but was not put on the revised site plan and is the same Key Map that was put
on the first plan. This property was originally an R-15 Zone and rezoned a few
years ago to an AH-2 Zone.
The site plan was redesigned after the initial meeting in
February. Based on Eng. Cristaldi’s letter and the Boards and public’s
comments, they redesigned the entire site. Mountain Ave. is a dead end street
and as you enter the site it would be the southwest corner and the high point
of the site. The road comes onto the site and to the rear where there’s an 80 ft.
diameter culdesac and the road is 24 ft. in width. The redesigned site plan has
smaller units but the same number of units that is 18 and the maximal
allowable. The first submission had 18 three-bedroom units approximately 1850
sq. ft. per unit and the revised site plan is split with 9 three- bedroom units
with approximately 1600 sq. ft. and 9 two-bedroom units with approximately 1400
sq. ft. Each unit is served by a minimum of a 40 ft. driveway.
One of the reports done by the Borough’s Traffic Engineer
asked the applicant to make some revisions to the driveway that services two
units on the front property along Mountain Ave. which they will be happy to do.
Mr. Marra said they have a 15 ft. buffer and also added a 40 ft. radius on the
culdesac that is the minimum required under the residential improvement
standards. Mr. Marra believes they have met all of the requirements of the
Borough’s Ordinance. They’ve also broken the buildings up into groups to
eliminate a variance that was for a 168 ft. long building with 6 units which
was in the original submission. In the new revised plans, they broke up the
buildings into a group of 4, 4, 5, & 5 and the maximum length of the
longest building is less than 150 ft. which is the maximum length permitted by
ordinance and sidewalks around the entire site. There was a wetland delineation
that occurred after the second submission and as a result of that, they revised
the site plan to show the wetlands and prepared a new drawing called “Wetlands
Delineation Drawing”. The three (3) landscape drawings were also revised and
those drawings depict the wetlands area on the site and also tell a story of
the DEP Application and what’s going to happen with that. There’s also a
transition area, a buffer area and an averaging area. The architectural design
of the units hasn’t changed at all.
Planner Hartmann mentioned that the ordinance calls for
the shade trees to be 30 ft. apart and the proposed trees are about 50 ft.
apart and would like that part of the plan revised. Atty. Rubin and Mr. Marra
said that would be no problem.
Atty. Rubin mentioned that at the last meeting an inquiry
was made about adequate sewer capacity and Atty. Rubin has obtained and filed a
letter from the Wanaque Valley Regional Sewer Authority confirming that there
is sanitary sewer capacity for the project. The other question that was asked
regarding a portable water system and at first they were considering a well
system and the possibility of municipal water. Atty. Rubin had a conference
with Tom Carroll, Borough Administrator and advised Atty. Rubin that he is in
negotiations as to obtaining a municipal water supply for this project and
others and will be finished out within the next several weeks.
Eng. Cristaldi and Mr. Marra had a lengthy discussion about how wide and long the driveways are and how many cars can be parked.
Chairman Foulon wanted to know, when you come in off of
Mountain Ave. and going to unit 1, 2, 3 or 4, what is the turning radius? Mr. Marra said it is slightly more than 90
degrees. Chairman Foulon asked Member Platt if he could get a fire truck in
there and Member Platt said he doubted it. Mr. Marra said he could talk to the
Fire Chief about this and Chairman Foulon said that is a must.
Chairman Foulon wanted to know how many parking spaces
where there in total. Eng. Marra said, in the submission before the Board,
there is a total of 53 including one in the driveway and one in the garage and
a total of 18 X 2 is 36. Chairman Foulon’s concern is that if someone is having
a party, where are they going to park?
Eng. Marra said there is a requirement of 44 parking
spaces for 18 units 9 three bedrooms and 9 two bedrooms, and they’re proposing
53 and agreeing to eliminate 3 and they’re not including 2 spaces in the
driveway. There also is the culdesac and 14 off-street parking spaces. Chairman
Foulon also added, that he said at the first meeting, he wanted another access
to this project and Mr. Marra said it can’t be done because the only access to
this property is from Mountain Ave.
Planner Hartmann said Unit #1 has a proposed patio along
the side of it and Planner Hartmann suggested some low landscaping and more
than just grass. The area between all of the building units between 4 & 5
and between 13 & 14 that just has grass there should be some kind of
landscaping. The parking area should
have some kind of landscaping to buffer out the headlights.
MOTION TO OPEN HEARING TO THE PUBLIC: made by Member Graceffo,
seconded by member Brindisi, voting yes were Chairman Foulon, Members Graceffo,
Mayor Hagstrom, Brindisi, Platt, Slater, Verba and Balunis.
Atty.
Veltri announced to the public that they should only address the testimony they
heard from the expert.
None/Closed
Dr.
John H. Crow, Ph.D. came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri. Dr. Crow’s
resume was passed around to the Board Members. Dr. Crow said he has specialized
for many years in the general science of Ecology and Environmental Impacts as
well as Wetlands. He did his B.A. Degree in Biology with special concentrations
in chemistry and mathematics. He did his Ph.D. in Ecology and Soils and studied
with the President of the Ecological Society of America. In 1968 he came to Rutgers as a Professor
and is still there.
Dr.
Crow said there are some wetlands in this site and is approximately 100th
of an acre, very small and off in one corner. In this particular case, they
will probably have a 50 ft. buffer and the applicant is allowed to manipulate
the position of the buffer and in general can reduce the buffer to 25 ft. so
long as there is a compensation of like area to as wide as 75 ft. Dr. Crow said this is a piece of property
that exists within a developed area that’s not been developed entirely and does
not appear to have any distinctive vegetation, distinctive habitats, and
development on this site is effectively not going to be noticeable with respect
to the regional environmental prospective and the regional issues.
OPEN TO PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None/Closed
John
Desch, Traffic Engineer came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri. Mr. Desch testified that he is a Licensed
Professional Engineer specializing in Traffic Engineering. Mr. Desch filed two
reports, an initial report and a revised report based upon comments he received
from Mr. Litwornia of Litwornia Associates, Inc.
Mr.
Desch he consults with the Standard Institute of Transportation Engineers
Handbooks and in this particular case they consulted with one of their
publications entitled “Trip Generation” that is a recognized publication that
enables traffic engineers
to project the amount of vehicles that will be generated by a particular site.
They did their report during the peak hours of traffic for this 18 townhouse
development. Their analysis was done at Mountain Ave. at Park St. which is the
nearest intersection. Mr. Desch said the amount of vehicles that would be
generated by this proposed development at the A.M. & P.M. hours is rather insignificant.
Mr. Desch said there would be about one car every two minutes with respect to
this proposed development. Another concern of Mr. Litwornia was sight distance.
Mr. Desch said from the proposed driveway looking to the left you can see all
the way down to Park St. Mr. Desch said
they don’t have the required sight distance to the right and its only because
the road dead ends and doesn’t go any further. Therefore, the sight distance at
this intersection is adequate. The parking is in conformance with the RSIS
standard and Mr. Desch mentioned Chairman Foulon’s concern with regard to when
someone is having a party there would not be adequate parking. Mr. Desch said,
when you design such a site, you don’t design for those unusual circumstances.
Mr. Desch mentioned the fire truck issue. He said the 24 ft. intersection with
a 20 ft. Mountain Ave. which it is, is wider than the 20 ft. Mountain Ave. with
20 ft. Park St., so if a fire truck can get into Mountain Ave. from Park St.,
its going to be able to get into this development as well.