
Two applicants before the Township Planning Board were turned away at the Board’s August 7 meeting.
One applicant who wanted to split a large lot in two to build a single-family home was told to revise his application and return to the Board, while the second applicant, who wanted to create two non-conforming lots off Hamilton Street, was denied.
Chad Rossbach was before the Board for permission to divide his 32,000-square-foot lot on First Avenue into two 16,000-square-foot lots, and build a two-story hone on the new lot, which fronts 2nd Street.
The lot is not connected to township water, nor does it have a septic tank. Because of that, and because it is located in the R15 lot, according to Mark Healey, the Township’s Principal Planner, the minimum lot size is 20,000 square feet.
“Presumably, the public purpose of that is that we need a larger land area, perhaps a need for greater separation between the septic systems and wells,” Healey said.
The Board’s problem with the plan was that Rossbach wanted to take a conforming lot and divide it into two non-conforming lots.
“I would hope that the board would accept our representation and if we can get a public water to the property we will,” Peter Lanfrit, Rossbach’s attorney, said.
“Right, I know you intend to, but for the rest of tonight we have no evidence that you can,” Board Chairman Michael Orsini replied. “We have no input from the water department, so we can only judge what is before us.”
“Mark’s comment raises another question in my mind,” said Board member Robert Thomas. “Is there any way that the project can be designed so that we get one conforming lot out of it? Maybe the one with the new house is 20,000 square feet.”
“I looked at this today and I discussed it with Mr. Fletcher and one of my thoughts, and you know sometimes I have trouble being a lawyer sometimes I want to be an engineer or planner, was to move the lot line for the new lot closer to the existing dwelling to make the new lot bigger,” Lanfrit said. “Whether we can make it conforming or not without creating problems.”
“I’m not sure that we’ve ever subdivided a conforming lot into lots that are not conforming with variance,” Thomas said. “So that’s a little bit of a concern.”
“I think we could do better with this,” he said.
Sensing the mood of the Board, Lanfrit said, “If the Board has the sentiment that perhaps, you know, the plan and the best be served and the board will vote more favorably on it … we would be happy to go back to the drawing board and resubmit a revised plan.”
Board members agreed that that would be a good idea.
The hearing was carried to the Board’s October 16 meeting.
In the application that was denied, Twelve31 Properties wanted to subdivide a 25,648-square-foot lot at 1231 Hamilton Street and Wheeler Place to 11,238 square feet and 14,410 square feet.
A new house would be built on the smaller lot, and an existing garage would be demolished.
Trouble started when the applicant’s engineer did not bring paper exhibits or a laptop computer to display the plans on the room’s video screens.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a public hearing,” Orsini said. “We put a note that you should come with a laptop so it can be projected onto the screen.”
Healey finally retrieved a laptop from his office so the meeting could continue.
The plan would call for the creation of two non-conforming lots, and the Board registered their opposition to that concept.
“Whoever built those made full use of this 25,000 square foot lot,” Board member Ted Chase said. “They perhaps wanted a 25,000-square-foot lot so that they could set the garage away from the house. At least they certainly used the 25,000-square-foot lot.”
“So I don’t see any argument that two undersized lots are better than one 25,000-square-foot conforming lot, which is only 142 percent of the minimum,” he said. “Remember, what the zoning law sets up are minimum sizes for lots. You can perfectly well have a lot larger than the minimum set by the zoning law. In fact, in many cases, it’s desirable.”
Orsini eventually made a motion to deny the application, which was seconded by Board member Bob LaCorte.
“I think this would be out of character” for the neighborhood, Orsini said.
The Board unanimously passed the denial.