The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A handful of applications for home renovations were given the thumbs’-up Dec. 6 by the township Historic Preservation Advisory Commission.
Most of the applications were for roof repairs, although two were for major home renovations.
Exterior work on buildings triggers a commission review when the building is located in one of the township’s historic districts or is close to the Delaware & Raritan Canal.
The largest of the applications heard by the commission was submitted by Hillsborough resident John Knapp, who owns a Canal Road home that he wants to renovate and sell.
Knapp will remove three exterior additions that were put on the 1950s-era home over the years, and build a 1,700-square foot addition in their place.
The addition will consist of a family room and a kitchen, Knapp said. He said he also wants to create another bedroom on the home’s second floor.
The plans also call for expanding the home’s current one-car garage into a two-car garage. After suggestions by commission secretary Thomas Gale, Knapp agreed to wall up the existing garage door – which faces the front of the house – and create another opening on the side of the house.
He also agreed to remove a cupola, and replace a pediment – small awning – over the front door with a porch.
“I think it’s going to be a nicer look for the whole house,” Knapp said.
He said he expected the house to sell in the $600,000 range.
The commission gave Knapp’s plan a conditional approval. He will have to resubmit his plans for final approval.
Knapp also got the commission’s conditional blessing for renovations he’s doing on a Livingston Street garage he’s rehabbing. He will have to submit more information on the type of garage door he will be using for final approval.
Another large renovation plan was submitted by Grouser Road residents Robert Goodman and Lauren Randolph, who want to build an addition to their log cabin-style home that will let them “age in place,” Goodman said.
The 763-square-foot addition will consist of a ground-floor bedroom suite, he said.
He said the exterior of the addition will match the existing home.
An existing bedroom will be converted into an office, he said, so the house will retain three bedrooms.
The couple’s next stop is the township Zoning Board of Adjustment, where they will seek a bulk variance from township setback requirements.
The commission voted to “take no exception” to the couple’s plans, which will be transmitted to the zoning board.
The first of the roof repair applications came from David Peterson of Highwood Road who needed to replace a damaged roof on one out building and leaking roofs on two others.
Peterson told the commission that a tree limb fell on his garage roof, damaging it. The two other buildings have loose shingles that need to be replaced, he said.
Walnut Avenue resident Joseph Nagy received approval from the commission to replace aging asphalt roof shingles on his home, as well as to replace the roof’s gutters.
Ronald Gilmore, representing his uncle, Highwood Road resident Daniel Tanner, came to the board for retroactive approval of an emergency roof repair that had already been finished.
Gilmore said he checked with township officials before repairing the roof, which, he said, was leaking badly.
