Planning Board reverses Lee property decision
Six homes will go up off Route 526 and Old Noah Hunt Road
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - An application for a six-lot subdivision that the Planning Board previously rejected was unanimously approved at the board's Feb. 12 meeting.

The application for Country Roads Estates on Route 526 and Old Noah Hunt Road had been turned down at the December meeting by a 3-2 vote. At the January meeting, the applicant's attorney, Kenneth Pape, asked that the application be reconsidered.

Pape gave a number of reasons as to why the board should reconsider the application, including that the December hearing did not start until 10:20 p.m. At that time, he said his clients found out that only five board members would be eligible to vote on the application. He also told the board that several large informational exhibits had been prepared on the subdivision, but the board went through the application so quickly that he could not present all the information. He also said the applicant's engineer, Julia Algeo, did not have an opportunity to speak at the December meeting.

The 58.4-acre tract owned by the Lee family is in the township's rural preservation (RUP) zone, which requires a minimum of 10 acres per building lot. At the February meeting, Algeo showed a map of the surrounding lots, most of which were developed when the township had 3-acre zoning.

Algeo said that by using permitted lot averaging, the six lots would average 9.9 acres in size before land for a county and municipal right of way was taken out. After the right-of-way dedication is factored in, lot averaging would create six lots, each consisting of 9.7 acres, she said.

The applicant's planner, Allison Coffin, testified that while her client's lots are slightly undersized for the RUP zone, the township's master plan states that each lot in the zone should have a minimum of five usable acres for farming purposes, as well as a 1-acre house lot.

Coffin argued that the application meets the goal and intent of the master plan, as each lot is large enough to qualify for farmland assessment. She said the lots have frontage on Route 526 ranging from 310 feet to 370 feet, whereas the minimum width required for the zone is 250 feet.

"The visual impression from the roadway will be very wide lots virtually indistinguishable from conforming lots," she said.

Coffin added that the Monmouth County Planning Board (MCPB), which has jurisdiction over Route 526, considers the route a scenic roadway and now accepts easements rather than dedications of rights of way due to situations like this.

Township Attorney Michael Steib explained the difference between an easement and a dedication. He said that when land is dedicated, the fee title would belong to the governmental authority, which in this case would be the county. Steib said an easement would allow the county to utilize the property for road-widening purposes, while the property owner would retain ownership.

Pape said the Lee family had conveyed the dedication to the county several years ago for $10. He said that the MCPB has recently said it would take easements instead of dedications because it found it was creating hardships for property owners on a recurring basis.

When asked if the dedication could revert to an easement, Pape said it could not. He said the property provided several dedications over the years, including one in 1966 for the widening of Interstate 195 (I-195). The property originally had been 60.83 acres, which would have met the RUP requirements, according to Pape.

Pape said the largest of the lots, which meets the 10-acre requirement, is near I-195. That lot has a man-made farm pond on it, and Township Engineer Matt Shafai asked if the lot would consist of enough farmable acres. Pape replied that farmable lands include all lands that are wetlands and wetlands buffers by definition.

Christopher Pepe, who chaired the application since Chairman Mitchell Newman had a potential conflict of interest, said the law requires 60 acres.

Township Planner Richard Coppola cited the court case Kaufman v. Warren Township, in which he had represented Kaufman. Coppola said that application was denied and then reversed by the appellate court because the character of the area had evidence of undersized lots.

Neighboring landowner Allan Wentz expressed concern about traffic on Route 52 and asked for an additional shoulder to be created to allow residents more time to pull into their driveways.

"Not everyone in Millstone can live on a cul-de-sac or a dead end," he said.

According to Wentz, speeding is a problem on the road on weekends, when a lot of motorcycle races take place. He said he has asked the New Jersey State Police to monitor the problem.

Wentz said he wished the tract had been put in farmland preservation, but he realized that "everything can't go that way."

"I'm a small farmer [so] I can relate," he said.

Wentz said he had tried to buy the property but was told that it had to go to a builder.

"I still don't think it is over 60 acres," he said. "We've all had our land dedicated."

Board member Michael Kuczinski asked if an affirmative vote would set a precedent regarding development in the RUP zone. Steib said that every application is looked at and evaluated on its own merits, and he did not see this decision as setting a precedent.

"It would be considered a unique circumstance as presented," he said.

All board members voted in favor of the application, with Manny Blanco - who had originally voted against it - saying that the fact that the property had been over 60 acres before dedication was the deciding factor for him.