MINUTES -
REGULAR MEETING
MUNICIPAL
MEETING ROOM
MAY 6, 2002
Chairman
Braun called to order the regular meeting of the Wall Township Planning Board
at 7:40 P.M. Members present were
Braun, Tobia, Thomson, Morris, Giardina, Capone, Farrell, Rible, Wilson, Attorney
Rubino, Engineer Gerken, Planning Board Secretary D’Andrea, Recording Secretary
Betty Schinestuhl and Court Reporter Patterson.
Chairman
Braun announced the meeting was being held in accordance with the “Sunshine Law”
and a resolution adopted on January 7, 2002.
Chairman
Braun said he had a few announcements.
Allied Domecq Retail will be carried at the applicant’s request. There has been no new date set. They must renotice.
Chairman
Braun said William Frank & RGH Homes, Inc. will be carried to May 20th. He stated it is not a minor
subdivision. It is a major
subdivision. The applicant will come
back and will renotice.
Chairman
Braun said the only matter on for this evening is Donald and Patricia
Weir. Chairman Braun said the Board has
to review two ordinances.
REVIEW AND RECOMMEND:
Ordinance
No. 14-2002 – Amending Ordinance No. 4-2002 adopted February 13, 2002 and
providing other changes to the zoning map.
Mayor
Thomson stated this is a housekeeping ordinance. He said the lots will now be more conforming.
Mayor
Thomson made a motion to recommend to the Township Committee that they adopt
Ordinance No. 14-2002. Mr. Giardina
seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved by a roll call vote. (Messrs. Thomson, Giardina, Morris, Farrell,
Capone, Kean, Ms. Wilson, Messrs. Rible, Tobia and Braun voted yes.)
Ordinance
No. 15-2002 – Amending and Supplementing Land Use and Development Regulations
regarding the schedule of zone requirements as it pertains to State Highway
34.
Attorney
Rubino said it should read, two stories or not more than 30’. Mayor Thomson said the Township Committee would
adopt this ordinance with an amendment.
Mayor
Thomson made a recommendation to the Township Committee that they adopt
Ordinance No. 15-2002 with an amendment stating that in sections B & C it
should say not greater than 30’.
Attorney Rubino instructed Mrs. D’Andrea to send the Township Committee
a memo regarding the amendment.
May
6, 2002 Page
2
Mr.
Giardina made a motion to recommend to the Township Committee that they adopt
Ordinance No. 15-2002 as amended. Mr.
Rible seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved by a roll call
vote. (Messrs. Giardina, Rible, Morris,
Farrell, Capone, Kean, Ms. Wilson, Messrs, Tobia and Braun voted yes.)
Mayor
Thomson left the meeting.
NEW APPLICATION
DONAD AND PATRICIA WEIR- PB#6-2002
– Block 118,
Lot 68, 1616 Walnut Street, R-7.5 zone.
Application complete: March 5, 2002.
Applicant seeks minor subdivision.
Minor with variances.
Attorney
Rubino reviewed the file and stated the Board had jurisdiction to proceed.
Robert
Weir, Esq. appeared for the applicant.
Entered
into evidence:
A-1 Jurisdictional Items
A-2 Map prepared by Kenderian-Zilinski dated
February 14, 2002, last revised March 1, 2002
A-3 Smaller color-coded map
A-4 Subdivision map
A-5 Two letters to adjacent property owners
A-6 Letter to Straele’s dated April 14, 2001
and September 4, 2001
A-7 Letter to Butz’s dated September 4, 2001
PB-1 Review letter from John Hoffmann dated April
29, 2002
PB-2 Review letter from Glenn Gerken, Bay Pointe
Engineering, dated May 3, 2002
PB-3 Monmouth County Planning Board letter dated
April 8, 2002
Attorney
Rubino stated the Board holds informal meetings and Mr. Weir was before that
committee at least two or three times.
Attorney
Weir explained the property is located on Block 118, Lot 68. It fronts on both Walnut and Juliette Drive. Mr. Weir has been a resident there for 25
years.
Sworn
by Reporter Patterson: Donald
Weir
Patricia
Weir
Michael
Zilinski
Dwight
Pittenger
Glenn
Gerken
Mr.
Weir explained he resides at 1616 Walnut Street. He has owned the property since June 1985.
May
6, 2002 Page
3
Attorney
Weir asked if Mr. Weir owned any adjacent property. Mr. Weir said no. Mr.
Weir explained this is a rectangular piece of property. It is 50’ X 125’. He said he is asking for variances for width, frontage and square
footage. He explained the property is
in two zones. Mr. Weir explained the portion
on Walnut is zoned R-10 and the portion on Juliette Drive is zoned R-7.5.
Attorney
Weir asked if he was asking for waivers regarding tree removal. Mr. Weir said yes.
Attorney
Weir asked if the lots have changed since Mr. Weir purchased the property. Mr. Weir said no.
Attorney
Weir asked if Mr. Weir has attempted to acquire any additional land. Mr. Weir said yes.
Mr.
Weir explained he tried to acquire additional property on Juliette Drive. He asked Mr. Straele if he would be
interested in selling a piece of his property.
He said Mr. Straele thought about it and he decided that he did not want
to sell. He also stated he did not have
a problem with Mr. Weir seeking the variances.
Attorney
Weir asked who else Mr. Weir spoke to about acquiring additional property. Mr. Weir said he spoke to Mr. Richard
Butz. He said on September 4th
he sent Mr. Butz a certified letter regarding this.
Mr.
Weir said he needs no setback variances.
Attorney
Weir asked about impervious coverage.
Mr. Weir said he does not need any variances regarding impervious
coverage.
Mr.
Weir explained he spoke to Judy Ehrhart a while ago and asked her to give him
all the information needed to subdivide.
He said he received that in April 2000.
He filled out the application in the fall. He said it was rezoned in between the time he picked up the
application and filed it. He said he
was notified of the change by certified mail.
He said immediately following the change he applied for the informal
hearing. He stated he had a few
informal hearings.
Attorney
Weir stated the planner will give more detail regarding the neighborhood.
Chairman
Braun asked about the foot plan for the house.
Mr. Weir stated he just came up with a building structure. He said he just came up with that to have
something on paper. Chairman Braun
asked if there was anything specifically planned. Mr. Weir said no.
Mr.
Weir said his property is in the R-10 zone.
The Juliette Drive property is zoned R 7.5. He said up to July 2000 it was zoned R-5.
Attorney
Weir asked if Mr. Weir tried to sell some of his property to Mr. Straele.
Mr. Weir said he asked Mr. Straele about selling a portion of his
property. He stated after the informal
he was told he should ask if the adjoining property owners were interested in
buying his property. He
May
6, 2002 Page
4
said
he did talk with Mr. Butz. Mr. Weir
said he thought Mr. Butz had additional property to the south of their
property. Mr. Butz said he only had a
matter of inches to sell.
Attorney
Weir asked Mr. Weir to explain the line that runs through the property. Mr. Weir said that is the line that
separates the zones.
Attorney
Weir asked if there was ever a separate property line. Mr. Weir said it was always part of the main lot. It was never a separate lot.
Attorney
Rubino read the letters to George and Barbara Straele dated April 14, 2001 and
September 4, 2001 into the record. He
also read the letter to Mr. & Mrs. Richard Butz into the record.
Chairman
Braun asked Mr. Weir when the first time he came before the Board was. Mr. Weir said in April 2000. He said the zone change was done in July
2000. He said he thinks he began the
process in November or December 2000.
The
application was open to the public.
Richard
Butz, 1508 Juliette Drive was sworn.
Mr. Butz stated there was some discussion regarding the purchase of
property from the Weir’s. He said there
was never any discussion about having the property appraised. He said his property is 100’ X 125’. He said he was not in a position to purchase
the Weir property at that time.
Attorney Rubino said they would give Mr. Butz time to think about the
purchase of the Weir property. He asked
Mr. Butz to let the Board know at the next meeting.
Mike
Durik was sworn. Mr. Durik said in 1982
he spoke with the Pittenger’s. He said
they were going to go through that property with a road. He asked why you would want to put a house
where they were going to put a road. Mr.
Weir said he had no information on what happened before he moved there. Mr. Durik said if this application goes
through there is going to be a safety problem regarding parking.
Michele
Badger, 1504 Juliette Drive, was sworn.
Ms. Badger said she lives north of Mr. Butz. She asked if Mr. Weir was planning on building the house himself
or was he planning on selling it. Mr.
Weir said he has no plans as of yet.
Ms.
Badger asked if there was a possibility of selling the property to a third
party. Mr. Weir said he has no plans
yet.
Michael
G. Zilinski, Planner gave his credentials.
The Board accepted Mr. Zilinski’s credentials.
Attorney
Weir asked Mr. Zilinski if he prepared the subdivision plat. Mr. Zilinski said yes.
Attorney
Weir asked if Mr. Zilinski was familiar with the neighborhood between Marconi
Road and Belmar Boulevard. Mr. Zilinski
said yes. Mr. Zilinski said he has
driven through the neighborhood.
May
6, 2002 Page
5
Mr.
Zilinski explained the Weir property is in two different zones. R-10 and R-7.5. He said about 30% of the lots are non-conforming. Mr. Zilinski explained to the Board all the
different size lots in the neighborhood.
He said there are numerous non-conforming lots in the area.
Attorney
Weir asked if they were similar to Mr. Weir’s lot. Mr. Zilinski said yes.
Attorney
Weir asked about setbacks. Mr. Zilinski
said they are not applying for any setback variances.
Attorney
Weir asked Mr. Zilinski’s opinion as to the variances applied for. Mr. Zilinski said it will not be against the
Township Master Plan. It will not have
any detriment to the neighborhood.
Mr.
Capone asked if the homes on the non-conforming lots were individual
homes. Mr. Zilinski said yes. He said there has been a lot of changes over
the years in that neighborhood. He said
the zoning has changed many times.
Chairman
Braun asked about the foot print of the proposed house. Mr. Zilinski stated he just designed a
box. Chairman Braun said the house
needs to be something to conform with the neighborhood. He said the Board is asking the applicant to
provide a like house.
Captain
Morris asked what the history was of the lot.
Mr. Zilinski said he did not know.
Attorney Rubino said Mr. Pittenger will explain how the lot got this
way.
Chairman
Braun stated the planning process was not as good back then as it is today. He said back then it was R-5 so there was
speculation that it could be a lot. He
said up until July 2000 it could have been a buildable lot. He said this is a very irregular lot the
Board has to deal with.
Attorney
Rubino asked Mr. Zilinski his opinion as to why the Board should grant
this. Mr. Zilinski said it is not a
detriment to the neighborhood. It is
not against the Master Plan.
Attorney
Rubino asked if Mr. Zilinski was aware that the Township rezoned the property
from R-5 to R-7.5. He asked how does
Mr. Zilinski figure this is not against the Master Plan. Mr. Zilinski said it was R-7.5, then R-5 and
then back to R-7.5. He said this is the
last 5,000 s.f. lot in the neighborhood.
Mr. Zilinski said it would be made into a viable livable house.
Chairman
Braun stated the Board wants to hold off on any more questions. He said Mr. Zilinski will begin testimony
again at the next meeting.
Chairman
Braun said Mr. Pittenger will testify tonight.
Dwight
Pittenger was sworn. Mr. Pittenger said
his company purchased the mother lot at one time. He said the lot in question was a free-standing tax lot. He said it has been 20 years since he was
before the Board regarding this development.
He said they may have proposed a street through the property. He said the Township wanted to eliminate two
dead ends. He said the Township was
concerned about a street coming out to Juliette Drive. He said the street did not comply with the
60’ width. He said the road was surplus
land and consolidated with the existing
May
6, 2002 Page
6
lot. He said it was zoned R-10 at the time.
Chairman
Braun asked if they made any attempt to make it a building lot when it was
R-5. Mr. Pittenger said it was never
R-5 it was always R-10. He said this
area had various lot sizes
Attorney
Rubino said when the Board gave a major subdivision approval were there any conditions. Mr. Pittenger said he is not aware of
any. He said he looked at the title
search and he did not see any conditions.
He said there was just an easement to JCP&L.
Entered
into evidence:
PB-4 Resolution of approval
Captain
Morris asked if this was the first time this has been attempted to be
subdivided. Mr. Pittenger said he never
tried to subdivide it. Mr. Weir said
this is the first time.
Chairman
Braun asked Mr. Weir to check out the interest of the neighbors purchasing the
property.
Attorney
Rubino asked Mr. Weir to be more specific as to where the house will be set on
the property.
Mr.
Butz asked, regarding the value of the land, it is considered a conforming
lot. Attorney Rubino said, for the
record, Mr. Butz is an attorney. He
said the land is valued as if the variances were granted.
Attorney
Weir said he received review letters from Mr. Gerken this morning. He said his engineer will address these
concerns at the next meeting.
Chairman
Braun said the new date will be May 20.
He said no additional noticing will be needed. Attorney Weir waived the
time limits.
There
being no further business to come before the Board, a motion was made, seconded
and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at 9:15 P.M.
Respectfully
submitted,
Betty
Schinestuhl
Recording
Secretary