MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING BOARD

OF THE BOROUGH OF MOUNTAIN LAKES

July 22, 2010

 

Chair Sandy Batty read the Open Public Meeting Advertisement Notice adopted at the annual meeting on January 28, 2010:  Adequate notice of this meeting was given to the Citizen and the Daily Record, posted with the Borough Clerk and on the Bulletin Board and made available to all those requesting individual notice and paying the required fee.

 

ROLL CALL:

Members Present: Nachshen, Batty, Holmberg, Nix, Bailey and Zamierowski

Absent: Lewis, Kane, Selver, Bravo, Jackson

Also Present: Engineer Bill Ryden (left at 8:50 pm) and Attorney Peter Henry

 

REVIEW OF MINUTES: Joan Nix made a motion to adopt the minutes of the June 24th meeting. Peter Holmberg seconded the motion; the minutes were approved by voice vote.

Peter Henry commented on the minutes stating that if the Board wishes to create a shortened version of the Master Plan it must be clearly marked as a summary and the reader should be directed to the complete version of the plan for additional information.

 

EXTENSION LETTER:

CIGCO, LLC                                                              Appl. #10-241

 

Edward Trawinski, a licensed Attorney in the state of New Jersey, was here to request an extension of time for his client.  They would like to have an additional 60 days to perfect the subdivision. Currently they are confirming the tax lot numbers with the Borough; which should be completed any day now.  The also need to demolish the original Garage and the driveway but are using the Garage as storage and the driveway apron as a clearing pad for the original home. They should be removed within 30 days but they are requesting 60 to be on the safe side.

John Zamierowski and Joan Nix recused themselves because they live with 200 ft. of the property.  As a result there were only 4 members available to vote on the request so we did not have a quorum on the issue.  It was suggested since this was not a D variance a quorum was not required. Mr. Trawinski was willing to accept this, he felt the Board was acting in good faith and he also had the Permit Extension Act as a back up option.

Peter Henry read aloud a resolution he had already prepared. Jim Bailey made a motion to adopt the resolution allowing for the extension of time; Corey Nachshen provided the second. The resolution was carried by a vote of 4 to 0 with members Batty, Holmberg, Nachshen and Bailey voting in favor.

 

PUBLIC HEARING:

FRANCIS AND MINDY OK                         26 Crestview Road

Blk. 44, Lot 26                                     Appl. # 10-242

            Soil Moving Permit                                           R-A Zone

 

Sandy Batty told the applicant there were a few questions the Board needed to have answered before they could hear their application. Joan Nix stated she was familiar with the property.  She had been asked by the previous owner to look at it and she felt there was a need to clarify the zone the property was in. When you look at the Borough’s zone map the property appears to be both in the R-A and R-AA zones. Marc Walker, a licensed Engineer with Dykstra Walker, stated the majority of the property was in the R-A zone.  The lot size is 2 times the required area and is under the lot coverage for the zone. He stated the applicant would confirm the zone before applying for a building permit.

Mrs. Nix stated when she looked at the lot previously she had a surveyor provide her with a topographical map of the property.  That survey showed a lot of steep slopes with little area left to create a legal building envelope. Marc Walker explained there was a small area behind the house that could be steep slope. He told the Board that the applicant could apply for a minor soil moving permit, less than 200 CY, to solve some of the slope issues.  They will not move any soil on the property until they got a building permit. Peter Henry said the soil moving application was not effected by the potential zone but could be effected by the steep slope situation. Marc Walker again stated that they would go before the Zoning Officer and the Construction Department to determine the zone before getting a permit and would not move any soil until they did so. They are placing the new house where the old home currently is. The application only deals with the moving of soil and not any type of variance. 

Bill Ryden confirmed there was nothing in the ordinance about steep slopes pertaining to soil moving. He also stated the comments of his letter were based on the house being in the R-A zone.  Mr. Walker said the applicant had no objections to the conditions of Mr. Ryden’s letter and his conditions must be met before they could continue. Peter Henry told the Board they could make the zone determination a condition of the soil moving permit.  Sandy Batty said the Board could continue with the application.

Marc Walker was then sworn in. The applicant would be moving 810 CY on the site plus an additional 209 CY for the foundation excavation which was exempt from the calculation. They were actually cutting 646 CY including the foundation and filling 373CY.  The remaining 273 CY, twenty trucks, would actually be leaving the site. Mr. Walker said his office also looked at how the drainage would be impacting the neighbors. The front of the property and the front of the driveway would drain onto Crestview Road. The backyard and the back of the driveway would be going into a dry well.  Any overflow from the drywell and the entire roof run off would go into 2 additional dry wells being installed on the property. There would be a total of 3 dry wells. The applicant did expand the backyard to create 35 to 40 feet of useable area; this expansion would not bust the rear setback. 

Sandy Batty asked if there were any questions from the Board.  Corey Nachshen asked if the 20 truck loads leaving the site were from the foundation, 13 loads were. John Zamierowski asked about the ILC going from 10.26% to 20.19%.  Mr. Walker explained that the ILC was mostly from the driveway. Sandy Batty confirmed the footprint size for the new home; it was 50% larger. Peter Holmberg asked how the applicant was protecting the neighbors during construction.  Mr. Walker said they would not be paving the driveway until the house was built and they had a soil erosion plan to stop the run off.  Mrs. Batty also asked about the new retaining walls; they would match the existing walls and not exceed a height of 4 ft.

Sandy Batty asked if there were any questions or comments from the public.  Mark Hayward of 39 Lookout Road asked if the plans changed in any way once they moved the dirt.  Peter Henry explained that the application only determined the movement of the soil on the lot and did not dictate where the house would go. Mr. Hayward was also concerned about water collecting on the corner of his property. Marc Walker confirmed that the water would be piped into the road and not onto Mr. Hayward’s property. Mr. Ryden also agreed the water should not head toward his property.

Corey Nachshen made a motion to approve the application with the following conditions: the applicant meet all the condition set forth in Mr. Ryden’s review letter and that they confirm the zone the building lot was in before moving the soil or a building permit would be issued.  John Zamierowski provided the second.  The application was approved by a vote of 4 to 2 with members Batty, Holmberg, Nachshen, and Zamierowski voting in favor.  Members Nix and Bailey voted against the application.

 

ROBERT KLINGENBURG                                        App. #09-237

 

The Planning Board Secretary received a letter from Richard Clark, the Attorney for Mr. Klingenburg, requesting condition #13 with respect to the COAH-issued Scarce Resource Restraint be eliminated from their resolution.  Peter Henry reviewed their request and determined since Mountain Lakes has not petitioned for the third round substantive certification process condition #13 was not required. He did further recommend that we include in the resolution a condition that if the Borough entered back into COAH and the applicant had not perfected the subdivision they would need to comply with condition #13.  Joan Nix made a motion to approve the deletion of condition #13; Peter Holmberg provided the second.  The application was approved by a vote of 6 to 0 with Board members Batty, Nix, Holmberg, Nachshen, Bailey and Zamierowski voting on favor.

 

MASTER PLAN COMMITTEE – 10. Historic Preservation Plan

 

Joan Nix presented the Historic Preservation Element. She explained that Table 1: “List of Building and Structures”, Table 2 “List of Bridges, Dams, Spillways” and the Map for Appendix H were added.

Sandy Batty asked the Board if they had any corrections that need to be made to the element.  Jim Bailey said that some of the descriptions for the bridges in Table 2 were not correct. Joan Nix said the descriptions were from the county. The Board decided to eliminate the descriptions so that they could still adopt the element.  Mrs. Nix responded to some of the comments made via email by George Jackson. Mr. Jackson thought the owners of the properties that were to be listed as Key Landmarks should have been noticed. Peter Henry said the Board was not required to notice select individuals but could notice the entire community when they were actually presenting the ordinance. Corey Nachshen said the Master Plan was just a guide and that the noticing should be done at the time the ordinance was created.  Sandy Batty was not in favor of listing the Mountain Lakes Club as a Key Landmark since the original building had burnt down and the second building had been renovated extensively. Joan Nix thought it should be on the list because Herbert Hapgood, the original developer, considered the building the Borough’s social club.

Sandy Batty asked if there were any questions or comments from the public. Tom Dagger, 41 Wilcox Drive, is the co-chair of the Historic Preservation Committee.  Mr. Dagger read a statement from the committee supporting the passing of the HPC element.  He thanked the Board for all the work they had done updating the Master Plan. Stephen Shaw, 4 Point View Place, was a Planning Board member for 6 years and is currently a member of the Borough Council. Mr. Shaw stated the Board had completed the Master Plan Reexamination Report on September 8, 2008.  At that time the Board made a decision to review the entire Master Plan element by element.  Once they did so they would vote on the entire revised Master Plan. He suggested not voting this evening. He thought that the Board should complete all the other elements they had been working on.  Once that was completed they should have a hearing on the entire plan. He recommended noticing all the property owners listed in the element. He also informed the Board that the Council had discussed Historic Preservation Proposals in May 2009 and, to encourage the preservation of historic structures, favored zoning incentives and education rather than restrictions of personal property rights. Andy Bulfer, 17 Bradford Terrace in Boonton Township NJ, and co-chair of the HPC also thanked the Board for their efforts and the work done by the subcommittee.  He mentioned the Borough becoming a historic district in 2005 and thought that this was the next step to be taken. 

Sandy Batty then asked for comments from the Board.  Corey Nachshen asked Peter Henry about the other chapters the Board had already worked on, should they be voting on everything together.  Mr. Henry thought that was a judgment call and not required. Peter Holmberg asked why they were not adopting all the elements at once. Sandy Batty was concerned that Council would not support the recommendations they were putting in the HPC element. Joan Nix thought the subcommittee had put in a lot of hours on this particular element and the Board should vote tonight. Jim Bailey thought that better attention was given to the element since it was done by itself. Peter Holmberg thought the July hearing was unfortunate.  John Zamierowski was concerned about not being in sync with the Council. Corey Nachshen thought the Board should vote and not wait. Peter Holmberg suggested the Board cluster 2 to3 elements together for a vote.  John Zamierowski and Sandy Batty were concerned about the lack of notice to the Key Landmark property owners.

Jim Bailey made a motion to adopt the HPC element of the Master Plan with the minor corrections that where made tonight. A second was provided by Joan Nix. Peter Henry had already prepared a resolution for the Board to vote on. The Board adopted the resolution by a vote of 6 to 0 with Board members Batty, Nix, Holmberg, Nachshen, Bailey and Zamierowski voting in favor.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

Master Plan Committee: The Board decided to go back and finish up the elements that they had already begun working on.  The Committee will present the status of those elements at our next meeting so we can begin to get them ready for a public hearing.

 

Sandy Batty made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The Board adjourned at 10:30 PM.

 

                                                                                   

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

                                                                                    Cynthia Shaw, Secretary