MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING BOARD
OF THE BOROUGH OF MOUNTAIN LAKES
November 15, 2012
Chair Jim Bailey read the Open Public Meeting Advertisement Notice adopted at the annual meeting on January 26, 2012: Adequate notice of this meeting was given to the Citizen and the Daily Record, filed with the Borough Clerk, posted on the Bulletin Board in the Borough Hall on January 30, 2012 and made available to all those requesting individual notice and paying the required fee.
ROLL CALL:
Members Present: Bailey, Nachshen, Dagger (7:35 pm), Gormally, Kane, DeVenezia, Happer (7:45 pm), Tovo and Zamierowski
Absent: Horan
Also Present: Attorney Peter Henry, Engineer Bill Ryden
REVIEW OF MINUTES: Charles Gormally made a motion to adopt the minutes of the October 25th meeting. Martin Kane provided the second; the minutes were approved by voice vote of all eligible voters.
RESOLUTIONS:
Hornrock Properties, LLC Appl. 12-250
Jim Bailey asked if the buildings affected in the amended site plan should be identified in the resolution. Peter Henry did not think that was necessary. He did however think that the third resolution on the property, dated February 28, 2008, needed to be referenced in this resolution. He will provide the Administrator with the appropriate correction. A motion was made by Martin Kane to accept the resolutions with the change suggested by Mr. Henry. A second was provided by Mr. Gormally. The Board voted 6 to 0 to approve the resolution with members Bailey, Kane Nachshen, Gormally, DeVenezia and Dagger voting in favor.
PUBLIC HEARING: none
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Master Plan
Chairman Bailey updated the Board on the status of the Master Plan. He had the Administrator send electronic copies of chapters 1 and 10 to the Board for their review. We will work on these chapters at our next meeting. Chapter 10 was the Historic Preservation Plan updated to include the new ordinance on Contributing Dwellings. He also updated chapter 1, Community Characteristics, with the latest census data. Nick DeVenezia asked if we had input from Planning Consultant on these chapters. Jim Bailey explained he did not have the Planner work on these 2 chapters but Paul Philips was working on 2 other chapters for the Board.
Other Business
Ordinance 20-12- Amending Chapter 245-9 Residential – Affordable Housing R-AH Zone
Mayor Charlie Gormally gave an overview of the new ordinance to the Planning Board. Zone R-AH will now be amended to change the density from 44 to 47 units, the setback on Fanny Road to 32 ft to accommodate the decks and the height of the buildings would increase to 39 ft. These changes were introduced during the 1st reading of the ordinance at the November 12th Council meeting. As a result the applicant will not be getting variances from the Board for these changes. The applicant would still need to bring an amended site plan to the Planning Board. At that time any additional concerns the Planning Board may have could be handled.
The Planning Board reviewed the new ordinance. Peter Henry suggested removing the statement, “WHEREAS, the Planning Board has reviewed this Ordinance and determined that it is in part inconsistent with the 1996 Master Plan and has recommended adoption despite the partial inconsistency”, from the ordinance. The Board had not met and made any determination on the ordinance prior to the 1st reading.
Jim Bailey commented the increase in density did not comply with the requirement to have an affordable housing unit built for every 4 market rate units built. In the 1996 Master Plan the R-AH Zone requires only 6 affordable housing units for 36 market rate units because the original parcel of land to be built on was smaller. The parcel to be built on became larger and the zone was changed to 8 affordable housing units for 44 market rate units. Peter Henry said the Master Plan talks about the project they had in 1996 and was not changed to reflect the final approved project. Another area of the Master Plan mentions the borough should provide opportunity for affordable housing. So one could say the new ordinance was partially inconsistent with the Master Plan.
Discussion ensued about the ordinance being inconsistent or partially inconsistent with Master Plan. In the end Martin Kane made a motion to determine the ordinance inconsistent and Charles Gormally provided the second. The Board voted 9 to 0 to determine the ordinance inconsistent with members Bailey, Kane, Nachshen, Gormally, Tovo Happer, Zamierowski, DeVenezia and Dagger voting in favor.
COAH
Mayor Gormally asked Peter Henry to comment on the status of COAH. Peter Henry said the short answer was there currently is no COAH so nothing is clear. The NJ Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments to reinstate COAH. Until this is decided the Borough cannot know it obligation. If there is a project to be built the municipalities have the right to decide the number of affordable units verses the number of new market rate units to be built. The municipality can decide it wants only a particular number of units. The town can decide this on project by project bases.
Charlie Gormally said the town was working on their own plan to meet their constitutional obligation for affordable housing. They were moving away from going with the third round certification because of the mess COAH was in. The borough was on a path to creating an affordable housing ordinance of our own making. He reminded the Board the 8 units at Park Place were part of the 60,000 affordable housing units created in New Jersey since the establishment of the constitutional obligation.
The Board is still in need of one alternate.
Jim Bailey made a motion to adjourn the meeting a second was provided by Charles Gormally. The meeting adjourned at 8:10PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia Shaw, Secretary