The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A local banquet hall owner received Planning Board approval to build two homes on Amwell Road.
Rupen Patel, the owner of The Imperia on Easton Avenue and the new Springhill Suites hotel on Cedar Grove Lane, wants to build the homes for family members who work at the businesses, the board was told.
Patel also recently received approval to build a restaurant adjacent to both the hotel and Imperia.
The two homes will be built on flag lots created by a subdivision also approved by the board. Access to both will be from one driveway.
The lots, on which a house once stood, are located near the bend in Amwell, near VanCleef Road.
The front of each 3,500-square-foot house will face the east, the board was told by Patel’s employee, Anthony Gabriel. He said this was for religious reasons.
The houses will have the same layout, but will have different facades, Gabriel said.
F. Mitchell Ardman, Patel’s engineer, said there will be a 6-foot-high privacy fence, trees and other plantings along the perimeter of the property to shield the view for neighbors.
Ardman said that creating the flag lots – which are not favored by planners – was the more acceptable option for the property. he said that splitting the 2-acre plot down the middle would require to driveways, and two curb cuts into Amwell Road, which is a county road.
Adman’s opinion was shared by Kevin O’Brien, Patel’s planner, who said creating the flag lots leaves more room for the homes.
“We believe that using this configuration preserves the current appearance of this lot, makes it look like a wider lot,” he said. “There’s only going to be one driveway. A casual passerby will think it’s only one home. This maintains the character of he neighborhood as it is currently.”
In other business, the board approved a tree remediation plan proposed by Brian Kaye of Girard Avenue. A contractor mistakenly took down more trees on Kaye’s property than the board approved when his plan to build homes on the property was approved in 2015.
