REGULAR MEETING

Meeting called to order by Member John DiMeglio with a salute to the flag.

ROLL CALL:

John DiMeglio David Slater

Tony Brindisi Eugene Verba

Kevin Platt

PRESENT: Attorney Steven Veltri and Engineer Michael Cristaldi

MEMBERS ABSENT: Chairman Gilbert Foulon, Member Joseph Graceffo, Mayor Warren Hagstrom and Member Thomas Balunis.

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 20, 2004 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 August 26, 2004 Meeting.

MOTION TO APPROVE: made by Member Brindisi, seconded by Member Verba, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Brindisi, Platt, Slater and Verba.

COMMUNICATIONS/REPORTS: No questions asked.

APPLICATION STATUS: Eng. Cristaldi reported one new application for the October 21^st Meeting and that is #11-04 Robert A. Grauso for a Minor Subdivision.

Atty. Veltri asked if anyone from the Public is here on the Brindisi Application #12-04. Atty. Veltri announced, unfortunately the Board does not have a quorum at the moment to hear the application, hopefully another member might show up later in the meeting and if not, the Board will have to carry the application to the next meeting.

APLICATION #14-04 Wanaque Realty, Corp. (Kara Homes), Block 200.20 Lots 1 through 48, Mountain Lakes Drive, Wanaque, N.J. Authorized Agent is Paul C. Pawlowski, Esq. Site Plan to alter the location of the lot lines of the 47 Townhouses making up “Lakeside Manor” to conform to the planned townhouse design. No new lots or roads would be created.

Attorney Paul C. Pawlowski came forward on behalf of the applicant. Atty. Pawlowski explained to the Board he is the in-house attorney for Kara Homes.

Currently recorded with the County is a subdivision plat for the 47 town-house project along Mountain Lakes Drive. Atty. Pawlowski went on to say, in order for Kara Homes to take over this project they have to change the shape of the boxes. When you buy one of these townhouses, you own the ground underneath the townhouse and then the homeowner’s association owns the common areas around the townhouse. They would like to change the shape of the boxes to fit Kara’s townhouses and not the one that was approved previously. The other issue is that they want to change the appearance. The original configuration had a two-car driveway in front of each townhouse and you had a strip of pavement between the townhouses and the road. What Kara Homes has done is make it a one-car wide driveway in front of the garage and then put undesignated spaces around.

Atty. Veltri asked Atty. Pawlowski if they’re changing the total number of parking spaces on the site from the last plan? Atty. Pawlowski said yes and Atty. Veltri said he didn’t see it advertised as a variance. Atty. Pawlowski said it’s not a variance because they still meet the “RSIS” requirements. Atty. Veltri wanted to know why Eng. Arthur Hanson didn’t put a box on the plan giving what the “RSIS” requirements are. Atty. Pawlowski said when Bruce Callahan of Hanson Engineering testifies he will discuss this issue. Atty. Veltri said he hopes they all comply because if they don’t, the hearing will be stopped and they’ll have to re-advertise. Atty. Veltri asked Atty. Pawlowski if they aggravated or enhanced any of the prior variances granted? Atty. Pawlowski said that should be the testimony of the surveyor unless he’s going to surprise Atty. Pawlowski.

Bruce Dennis Callahan, of Hanson Engineering and Licensed Professional Land Surveyor and Planner in the State of New Jersey, came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri. Mr. Callahan said he has a BS in Civil Engineering from NJIT graduated in 1979, License Land Surveyor in the State of N.J. since 1979, Professional Planner since 1985 and has testified before this Board and numerous other Boards in the State of N.J. Mr. Callahan discussed the parking for this project. Mr. Callahan went on to say that the application before the Board tonight is basically the same that was passed a number of years ago. The lot configuration has not changed, the internal road network has not changed and the only thing that has changed is the configuration of the buildings. All the variances are the same or have been lessened. Mr. Callahan went over the exhibit on the easel and is map number 3474 filed in the year 2001 and was the approved subdivision that was filed in the Passaic County Courthouse. The biggest change is that Buildings 7, 8 & 9 that back onto Linda Road are actually further away from Linda Road than approved. The original buildings were approximately 50 feet from Linda Road right-of-way and the proposed buildings are now 60 feet. The buildings that front on Pondview Circle, Buildings 10 through 21 have been shortened in depth and are approximately 10 feet further away from the stream encroachment line of wetlands,

the sensitive areas of the site. The number of buildings is the same and the number of units is the same. The other change that is quite prevalent is the parking. The “RSIS” requirement is 2.4 parking spaces per unit, which is what the applicant has. Their plan proposes 114 parking spaces for 74 units. The original plan approved previously was 140 spaces for 47 units or 3 spaces per unit. The proposed plan in front of the Board tonight is to have one garage parking space as well as one on grade of surface parking in front of the unit with considerably more landscaping between the driveways in front of the units with a sprinkling of unassigned guest parking throughout the site. Atty. Veltri asked how many parking spaces were they lessening on the site? Mr. Callahan said the parking spaces are going from 140 to 114 and is a total less of 26 spaces. Atty. Pawlowski said he is in receipt of Eng. Cristaldi’s letter of September 13, 2004 and in that letter Eng. Cristaldi brings up the parking issue. Mr. Callahan went on to say that they have taken some of the guest parking and enlarged the areas and in the process have gone from 14 guest parking spaces to 29 guest parking spaces bringing a total on the site to 129 spaces or a ratio of 2.75 spaces per unit. Atty. Pawlowski started marking some of the exhibits; A-1 is the Approved Subdivision for the townhouses, A-2 is the proposal or application to amend the Site Plan, A-3 is the overlay where they put the proposed amended subdivision on top of the current subdivision and A-4 is the additional parking which increases it to a total of 29 unassigned spaces and moves the ratio up to 2.75. Mr. Callahan wanted the Board to know that he noticed there were two drafting errors on the map labeled A-1 and they’re in the Zoning Table and they are the building coverage and impervious coverage. The building coverage is listed as 27.6% and it should be 10.7%; and the other error is in the impervious that is listed as 35.6% on the plan and should be 19.3%. Eng. Cristaldi asked Mr. Callahan to revise his tables on the plans to show the required, proposed and what was previously approved and Mr. Callahan said he would. Member DiMeglio wanted to know how many parking spaces did they allow in front of each townhouse on the original plan. Atty. Pawlowski said there was one space in front of each home and they did that specifically because they didn’t want the effect of pavement between the townhouses and the road, therefore, by having on space in front of each home you have some green space. The previous plan had a double wide parking driveway in front of each house one space went into the garage and the other went into the stoop and quite frankly, Atty. Pawlowski said, it hurts the value of the property and doesn’t look good.

Atty. Veltri said the Board needs time to digest this and look back at the prior approval. Atty. Veltri also said he was the Bd. Atty. when the application was approved and he does know that the number of parking spaces presented in the application directly impacted upon the number of units granted. The difficulty that some Board Members are having is that there are now twelve (12) less spaces and forty-five (45) three-bedroom units. What the developer is saying is they want to put their style in and think it’s more saleable. Atty. Veltri doesn’t have any argument with that, except there are 12 less parking spaces on the site and same number of

units with the same number of bedrooms.

Mr. Callahan said all the units are three bedrooms and the smaller unit has 2400 sq. ft. including the basement and the larger unit has 2800 sq. ft. Mr. Callahan also said the garage is 11 X 20 ft. roughly. Member DiMeglio said he would think on a three-bedroom house you would need three (3) parking spaces. Atty. Pawlowski said they looked at who they were going to market this project to and their marketing department said about 80% will be 55 or older and they do anticipate two (2) spaces to be the standard not three (3).

Jose Reis, Architect for Kara Homes came forward and was sworn in by Atty. Veltri. Mr. Reis gave out some copies of plans. Mr. Reis is a licensed architect in New Jersey and New York and has a BS Degree and registered in New York since 1986 and New Jersey since 1987. Mr. Reis has been working with Kara Homes for the past 2½ years and previously with K. Hovnanian Companies. Mr. Reis said basically there are two units; they all are three bedroom units and a one-car garage, which is roughly 11 ft. by 20 ft. interior dimensions and 2 ½ stories high. It is a split level unit coming in at grade level, go up a half level to living spaces and a full level to the bedroom spaces on the second floor. The units will have siding and partial stone in the front. All the units will have decks in the back or the side depending upon the unit. The basements are partial basements and about 4 ft. off the ground. The second floor, where the master bedroom is, has its own private bath and two additional bathrooms in the front of the house. The first floor has 9 ft. ceilings and the second floor has 8 ft. ceilings and skylights are optional. The building height is 35 ft. maximum, and sloping sites that doesn’t allow them the 35 ft. they will reduce the slope of the roof. Eng. Cristaldi asked about the longest building lengths and Mr. Callahan said it is 169 ft. that was approved. The Kara buildings will be smaller than the previous buildings.

MOTION TO OPEN PUBLIC DISCUSSION: made by Member Slater, seconded by Member Brindisi, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Brindisi, Platt, Slater and Verba.

Joseph Diaz, 3 Mt. Lakes Drive came forward. Mr. Diaz explained he is a neighbor of the project. Mr. Diaz said he is not opposed to the project moving forward because it’s been at a stand still for a long time and would be beneficial to the residents who live in the area. What he is opposed to is other issues that haven’t been addressed that should be addressed before this variance is even considered. The Developer’s Agreement for one has many issues that haven’t been met. The key people that should be here tonight are not here. The project hasn’t been sold to Kara Homes and the gentleman who owns the project is still attached to this project and the residents have a bad track record with him. He’s notorious for making

promises that he doesn’t live up to, he hasn’t complied with many issues and Mr. Diaz had to take him to court. There’s a judges decision that he hasn’t complied with and is beyond his 90 days and is in contempt of court and Mr. Diaz has filed a motion against him. His variances and permits have expired and Mr. Diaz has proof of that and Mr. Diaz has a notice from the DEP saying that he’s been denied any modifications through his expired permits. Mr. Rodrigues, Sumo Enterprises and Kara Homes are all aware of this and haven’t acted on these issues. Atty. Veltri said the Developer’s Agreement is between the Borough and the developer not this Board. Atty. Veltri said tonight the Board is considering an amended site plan, and what was said tonight was said by two experts about the new parking configuration and the applicant has made an application and the Board has a duty to listen and to review the application and to vote on it at the appropriate time. Atty. Veltri added, tonight is not the appropriate time since they only received the floor plans tonight and the Board has asked for some other modifications on the site plan and would also like a full Board present to consider this application. Atty. Veltri’s recommendation to the Board would be to get the changes put on paper and to review them and for the developer to come back to the next meeting, possibly for a vote at that time. Mr. Diaz said, that parking has already been an issue this past summer and that’s because the camp opens up and is open all summer and many of the counselors are parking on Mt. Lakes Drive. Therefore, if the applicant cuts down their number of parking spaces it’s most definitely going to create a problem and also with the winter coming people will be parking on the roads. If they are making the units smaller they should take the extra land and make a parking lot or extra parking spaces. Mr. Diaz added that with three bedrooms you will definitely get three cars and they should consider making them two bedrooms units. Mr. Diaz mentioned that on the plans they refer to Permit #1613-04 (Mr. Diaz has copies of that permit) and that permit has expired and they haven’t had that permit renewed and were denied. Atty. Veltri suggested Mr. Diaz give that information to Atty. Pawlowski to look over and if there’s no objection, the Board will look at it. Atty. Pawlowski looked over the permit and said his objection is that this is a DEP matter with regard to a Stream Encroachment Permit and is being handled by the DEP and the courts. Atty. Pawlowski added, that Planning Boards don’t have purview over Stream Encroachment Permits and this particular document was copied to the Borough of Wanaque, Engineer, Clerk and Construction Official. Atty. Veltri told Mr. Diaz that the Planning Board’s job is to deal with this particular site plan application and amendment based upon the facts they heard tonight. Atty. Veltri told Mr. Diaz that if the Mayor & Council are not aware of this, they are the party Mr. Diaz should be in front of.

Ken Manning 2 Linda Rd., Wanaque came forward. Mr. Manning said that in the two or three weeks that Kara Homes has been at the site, they have done more to that community than Sumo Enterprises has done in five (5) years. Mr. Manning’s concern is that he just found out that Jacinto Rodrigues is a part of this and he feels that Jacinto Rodrigues doesn’t have a good track record. Mr. Manning said the

residents in that area were promised a whole lot of things that were suppose to take place before any applications, fix the dam etc., and its cost himself and his neighbors time, energy, stress, anxiety and money. Mr. Manning asked the Board, that if they grant the application, could they make sure that the residents are taken care of.

Bill Darlington, 56 Cannonball Rd., Wanaque came forward: Mr. Darlington said there is a development in town built by Hovnanian by the Back Beach area that has very narrow driveways. There tends to be two cars in every driveway and it looks messy to him. Mr. Darlington wanted to know if there was another Kara Home site with this type of configuration anywhere in N.J.? Atty. Pawlowski said there is one very similar in Stafford which is south on the Parkway.

Ken Manning came forward again: Mr. Manning wanted to know if there was going to be any affordable housing. Mr. Manning was told they didn’t think so.

MOTION TO CLOSE PUBLIC DISCUSSION: made by Member Platt, seconded by Member Brindisi, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Brindisi, Platt, Slater and Verba.

MOTION TO CARRY APPLICATION #14-04 WANAQUE REALTY, CORP. (KARA HOMES) TO THE OCTOBER 21^ST MEETING: made by Member Slater, seconded by Member Verba, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Brindisi, Platt, Slater and Verba.

Atty. Veltri told the applicant that the Site Plan has to be revised with the Zoning Table to include Approved, Required & Proposed. Additional Floor Plans with the area of each unit, and Mike Cristaldi wants to know what was there before. Atty. Veltri also said the Board needs the Amended Parking Plan and if they can come up with additional parking that obviously will be beneficial. Mr. Callahan wanted to know if the Board would allow them to continue Pond View Circle and close it to Linda Rd. so they could put some parking on either side of it. The answer from the Board was no. Eng. Cristaldi added, that he wants to go over the definition of a story and he will look it up in the ordinance and also the measurement of the height of the building that he will also look up in the ordinance.

NEW BUSINESS APPLICATION: “More for Less” (Dairy & Grocery Outlet), 617 Ringwood Ave., Block 235 Lot 13, Wanaque, N.J. Owner of building is James

Stokem, 92 Aldrin Dr., Wanaque, N.J. Owner of business is Ed Nagle, 100 East 16^th St., Apartment 5, Paterson, N.J.

Mr. Nagle came forward and told the Board he is making a Dairy & Grocery Outlet that will bring low dairy and grocery prices. The Plumbing Inspector said he could not get into all parts of the building and they need to apply for a Food Establishment. Mr. Nagle said he spoke to Roy Stanley, Sanitarian Officer about

this. The Fire Prevention Bureau said they could not inspect at this time because the building was empty and will inspect at a later date. The Building Inspector’s report was in compliance.

MOTION TO APPROVE SUBJECT TO APPLICANT RETAINS A FOOD LICENSE AND INSPECTION FROM THE FIRE PREVENTION BUREA: made by Member Brindisi, seconded by Member Verba, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Brindisi, Platt, Slater and Verba.

Member DiMeglio said the Brindisi Application will have to be carried to the October 21, 2004 Meeting since no additional members showed up this evening for a vote.

MOTION TO CARRY APPLICATION #12-04 ANTONIO & MARY ANN BRINDISI TO THE OCTOBER 21^ST MEETING AND NO FURTHER NOTICE OR PUBLICATION IS REQUIRED: Antonio & Mary Ann Brindisi, Contract Purchasers, 2 Beam Avenue, Block 225 Lot 2, Wanaque, N.J. Minor Subdivision with no new building lot created: made by Member Slater, seconded by Member Platt, voting yes were Members DiMeglio, Platt, Slater and Verba. Member Brindisi abstained.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None

RESOLUTIONS: None

VOUCHERS: None

MOTION TO ADJOURN AT 9:58 P.M.: Carried by a voice vote.

______________________________

Gerri Marotta

Secretary to Planning Board