U.F. looks at changing building design standards
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - The township attorney will review the controversial facade ordinance and report his findings back to the governing body next month.

At the April 4 Economic Development Committee meeting, the owners of Kiddie Academy, which is the first building approved for the Cox's Corner commercial subdivision on Route 524, said that complying with the facade ordinance forced them to make "significant structural changes" to their building plans.

At the following night's Township Committee meeting, Doug Walsh, the developer of the Cox's Corner project, said he sent the governing body numerous references to problems in the ordinance.

Township Attorney Granville Magee told the Township Committee at its April 19 meeting that he did not write or previously review the ordinance, which passed in December 2005.

Deputy Mayor William Miscoski asked, "Are you telling me that no professional reviewed it?"

Magee's associate and son, Granville Michael Magee, said he believes Township Planner Mark Remsa wrote and reviewed the ordinance.

When the Township Committee passed the ordinance, Remsa said its guidelines are not part of township zoning. He said the ordinance gives developers expectations of the kind of style, architecture and design the town desires.

Upon reviewing the ordinance, Granville Michael Magee said that although it describes commercial design guidelines, the guidelines are actually requirements or standards. He said the words "may" and "should" only appear seven times in the document, while the word "shall" - which makes guidelines requirements - appears 100 times.

An applicant would need a waiver for relief from the requirements. A waiver requires a lower burden of proof than a variance, according to Magee, and the Planning Board has more latitude to grant it.

Granville Magee said that some applicants do not have professionals to note the need for waivers for their applications and that such waivers could cost time.

Miscoski said it is "not a big deal" for an applicant to come before the Planning Board to ask for a better design and to receive a waiver.

"We must have something, not 'willy-nilly, you can build anything you want,' " he said.

Granville Michael Magee said any applicants for the Cox's Corner site have to come before the Planning Board with their site plans. He called the ordinance "a stopgap to keep the outrageous from coming in."

Committee members cited several guidelines in the ordinance they considered especially onerous. One concerned the scale of buildings.

The guidelines state, "New construction shall appear to be the same number of stories as other buildings within the block, or shall have the same number of stories as the buildings original to the site."

Members found another guideline relating to windows problematic.

"The total area of windows and doors in the public facade of new construction, and additions shall not be less than 10 percent and no more than 25 percent of the total area of the facade," the guidelines state.

The guidelines continue, "The proportion of a window in the public facade of new construction, and additions shall have a height that is at least twice the width, and in no instance shall windows exceed 8 feet in width and 64 feet in area."

Granville Magee said it may be wise to consider simple changes to the ordinance.

Granville Michael Magee said it would not be terrible for the Township Committee to eliminate the one- and two- story provision.

The attorney said he will review the ordinance, contact Remsa with regard to the ordinance and revise the document for consistency and user friendliness.