MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING BOARD
OF THE BOROUGH OF MOUNTAIN LAKES
March 22, 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: Kane, Gormally, Happer, Tovo, Horan, Zamierowski, Bailey, DeVenezia, Nachshen and Dagger
Also Present: Attorney Peter Henry, Engineer Bill Ryden
REVIEW OF MINUTES: Charles Gormally made a motion to adopt the minutes of the February 23rd meeting. Dan Happer provided the second; the minutes were approved by voice vote of all eligible voters.
RESOLUTIONS: none
PUBLIC HEARING:
TERRI OLSHANSKI 26 Crestview Road
Blk. 44 Lot 26, Appl. #11-246
Major Soil Moving R-A zone
Terri Olshanski, of 6 Natale Dr. Sparta, NJ 07871 and owner of 26 Crestview Road Mountain Lakes, and Marc Walker, a licensed Engineer in the state of New Jersey, were sworn in. Mr. Walker would be presenting the application. Mr. Walker explained he was here a few years ago with the previous property owner for a Soil Moving application. At that time the plan was to remove the house and build a new one. The property was sold before the previous owner built the house. The new owners are building the same house but would like to expand the yard. The 273+ CY of material that would have been removed from the property in the last application would now be used in the backyard. In addition the Olshanski’s will bring in an additional 78 CY of fill. There is one corner of the backyard they would like to expand. They will maintain the existing vegetation buffer and place a new retaining wall at 25 ft. setback line.
John Zamierowski confirmed the 78 cubic yards would be imported. The newly created yard area will be lower than the existing yard by 4 ft. This new site design will retain more water on the property. Jim Bailey said he noticed the dry wells were in a different location than the last application. Marc Walker confirmed they had been moved. The new location for the dry wells, below the retaining wall, was a better location to catch the run off. The dry wells has been sized to handle all the over flow on the property. Mr. Bailey noted there were two driveways. Mr. Walker confirmed only one would be kept. Nick DeVenezia noted there were a lot of trees are coming down. Terri Olshanski said the trees had already been removed and the foundation was being installed. A tree removal permit has been approved by the Borough. Robert Tovo told the Board the Shade Tree Commission had walked the property and approved the tree removal plan. Jim Bailey asked if they would be installing a fence. Marc Walker said they would be installing one where the stone wall exceeded 4 ft in height.
There was no one present from the public.
Martin Kane made a motion to approve the application with the conditions requested in Bill Ryden’s letter in addition to the Boards standard conditions. Charles Gormally provided the second. The Board voted 9 to 0 to approve the application with Bailey, Kane, Nachshen, Gormally, Tovo, Happer, Horan, Zamierowski and DeVenezia voting in favor.
MASSIMO CALAFIORE 150 Laurel Hill Road
Blk. 55 Lot 24.01 Appl. #11-247
Major Soil Moving R-A zone
Massimo Calafiore, of Laurel Hill Road, and Marc Walker, a licensed Engineer in the state of New Jersey were sworn in. Marc Walker would be presenting the application. Massimo Calafiore had purchased the Laurel Hill R oad portion of the Kraft subdivision the Board approved a few years ago. He would like to install a 6 ft retaining wall in the back of the house and have fill brought in to create a level backyard. The retaining wall would be installed 72 ft from the rear property line. The back of the property would be come flatter and more usable. Approximately 703 CY of fill (52 truck loads) would be brought in.
Jim Bailey questioned where the fill would enter the property, would it be from Laurel Hill? Marc Walker said the homeowner would need to work that and the timing out with Mr. Ryden. A landscape buffer has been added along the property line. Jim Bailey was concerned about the roots of the trees in the driveway entrance on Laurel Hill Rd. Massimo Calafiore said one of the two trees came down in the October storm. The applicant had not determined if he would be installing a fence or shrubs in-between the two sets of stairs along the rear property line. They realize landscaping would create a natural fence. On both sides of the stairs they will be installing shrubs because this part of the wall is in the setback where a fence is not allowed.
The newly created area would absorb more water than the property currently does. What is not captured will follow the same flow pattern it does now. By making the yard flatter its captures more water than they did before. Dan Happer was concerned about a 6 ft wall with a lot of dirt behind it. Bill Ryden said the Construction Department would determine the need for footings etc to make sure there would not be any issues with the construction of the wall. Tom Dagger asked if the wall would be visible from the Boulevard, it would not.
There were not members of the public present.
Peter Henry said he would include the following in the resolution, the standard conditions, a condition pertaining to the fences and hedges, plus the 4 conditions required in Bill Ryden’s letter. Martin Kane made a motion to approve the application presented with Peter Henry’s list of conditions. A second was provided by John Zamierowski. The Board voted 9 to 0 to approve the application with Bailey, Kane, Nachshen, Gormally, Tovo, Happer, Horan, Zamierowski and DeVenezia voting in favor.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Planner – Paul Phillips, of PPG, LLC, has been hired as the Planning Board Planner. Mr. Philips will be taking a tour of the town during the month of April. Jim Bailey will be meeting with Mr. Phillips separately to review the Master Plan progress.
The Board realigned the subcommittees for 2012. Plan Review will be done by Bill Ryden, Corey Nachshen, and Nick DeVenezia. The Ordinance Review Committee will be Martin Kane, Bob Tovo and Tom Dagger. The Board also needs to work on revising and adopting a new application. The Plan Review Committee will work with the Board Administrator to revise all their applications.
Other Business
The Board is still in need of one alternate.
The Historic Preservation Ordinance Committee will be going to Council to make their presentation in April.
Jim Bailey made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The Board adjourned at 8:35 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Cynthia Shaw, Secretary