Planning Board Approves Plan To Subdivide Vanderbilt Lot For Home Construction

Margaret DeGeorge told the Planning Board on June 18 that she wanted to build a new home near her mother’s on Vanderbilt Avenue.

A township resident won Planning Board approval June 18 for her plan to split a Vanderbilt Avenue lot into two to allow her to build a home close to her family.

Margaret DeGeorge told the board that she currently lives in a townhouse on the other side of town, and she wants to be closer to her mother and brother who now share a house on Vanderbilt.

Both family members have medical issues, she said.

“I’m concerned about my mother and I would like to live close to her,” DeGeorge said.

She said the house was built in the 1920s and is “too old” to put on an addition.

Some board members expressed concern that the subdivision of the 25,000-square-foot lot would create two undersized lots. The board does not generally favor the creation of undersized lots.

But DeGeorge’s planner told the board that there are 32 other non-conforming lots in the area, so her project would not be out of character.

Board members Ed Potosnak and James Pettit voted against the application.

In other action, the board approved a request for a sign variance made by the owner of the D Mart convenience store at Route 27 and High Street.

The applicant, Vardhaman Doshi, needs to put the sign within the building’s front yard setback – a violation of the township’s zoning ordinance – because that’s the only place to put it on the property, Doshi’s attorney, Peter Lanfrit, told the board.

“It’s a free-standing sign that conforms to the ordinance, except for the setback,” he said.

Lanfrit said the sign is needed because motorists cannot see the sign that is attached to the store.

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