New home will be built on Disbrow Hill Road
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

MILLSTONE - An attorney for a Zoning Board applicant said his out-of-town client should have read the local newspapers. That way, he would have been aware that the township's zoning had changed.

Attorney Anthony Burgess said at the Aug. 22 Zoning Board meeting that his client, Michael Sacco, has a 5.8-acre lot at 208 Disbrow Hill Road, which is located in the township's rural preservation (RU-P) zone. The RU-P zone now falls subject to 10- acre zoning, but it did not when Sacco purchased the lot in 2001.

Sacco, who plans to build a two-story, 4,200-square-foot dwelling on his lot, appeared before the board seeking a variance for lot size. Burgess alleged that Sacco never received notice of the change in township zoning.

"The applicant fell in the cracks," Burgess said.

He told the board that the properties adjacent to his client's lot are the same size as his client's lot. Earlier this year, according to Burgess, the township's Planning Board approved a 17-lot subdivision called Rosemont Farm Estates where all the lots measure 3 acres. The subdivision is located next to his client's property, he said.

Township Planner Richard Coppola later said that the subdivision Burgess talked about received preliminary approval prior to the township's change to 10-acre zoning.

The applicant's engineer, Edward Patalano, said his client's lot contains both wetlands and a conservation easement. Because of the conservation easement, his client cannot meet the section of the township's zoning ordinance that requires having at least 1 acre of noncritical area in a circle or rectangle around the house, Patalano said. He said the property falls short by 23 feet for the necessary 150-foot rectangle.

Coppola said the applicant would have the required footage for the noncritical area if the conservation easement was located elsewhere on the property.

Board Attorney Gregory Vella said the conservation easement is a wetlands buffer and that the applicant could do transition averaging by filling in some wetlands. Coppola agreed that buffer averaging would meet the requirements of the ordinance.

"If the Zoning Board agreed to grant [the use of buffer averaging], it must highlight that [this] is a unique situation," he said.

Patalano noted that if his client opted to use buffer averaging, the N.J. Department

of Environmental Protection (DEP) would have to get involved in the project.

Sacco's neighbor, Antal Hilbert, told the board that he is concerned about the proposed driveway. He said that when he bought his lot, he was told that any driveway on the Sacco land would be built on the other side.

"Now, it's right on the property line," he said.

Patalano said the driveway would be 20 feet off the property line.

Zoning Board Chairman Michael Novellino said that people typically plant a row of white pines to screen their property from neighbors. However, Coppola said the driveway could be skewed to the east, which would not affect the design of the house.

Patalano said that the driveway was designed for minimal tree removal.

"I want to cut where there are saplings and don't [want to] have to cut down any big trees," Sacco said.

Sacco also testified that a portion of Hilbert's lawn is on his property. He said that his property is all wooded and has a tree line on the property line.

Patalano said a mounded septic will be built for the house, which will be 3-4 feet above grade. Fill will have to be brought in for the septic, he said.

The Zoning Board unanimously granted the variance, with the condition that the applicant must move the driveway east and put conservation easement markers in place.