Contentious application receives board approval New business plaza driveway conforms with master plan BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer MILLSTONE - Although the Planning Board voted 7-1 to approve a variance for a private road for Millstone Center Associates (MCA), many members said they cast their affirmative votes reluctantly. Dan Kurzman, who said he could not vote in favor of the variance after hearing from neighboring homeowners, cast the dissenting vote at the Feb. 13 meeting. The variance concerns a 9.5-acre property in the Neighborhood Commercial (NC) zone at the corner of Route 526 and Millstone Road. The site currently houses a Dairy Queen, a KinderCare facility and the Veterinary Surgical and Diagnostic Specialists (VSDS) center. Vice Chairman Christopher Pepe, who chaired the meeting due to Chairman Mitchell Newman's potential conflict of interest with the application, told audience members that they must understand that attorney Kenneth Pape handled the application properly. Pape represented MCA and is also a principal of the company. "He has abided by the rules of the master plan," Pepe said. "The road could be a public road and the benefits of the private road would become the onus of the township." Pepe added that he hopes residents are satisfied that the board "uncovered every stone." He also noted that Millstone is a rural community and that no one moves in for conveniences. Mayor Nancy Grbelja said that there is nothing in the master plan that would allow the board to deny the application. "We're all in a quandary because it fits in the master plan," she said. "The only thing we can do is look at each site plan that comes in and protect the master plan as best we can." According to Pape, the site does not have any wetlands or environmental constraints. He said the five building lots on the acreage meet or exceed the NC zone requirements. Pape said he arranged a meeting at his office last month for concerned neighboring residents. Two neighbors attended, he said. Township Planner Richard Coppola also attended the meeting, and among the conditions the applicant agreed to were picking up garbage after certain morning hours, turning lights off an hour after the businesses close, notifying residents within 200 feet of the border of the property of any future site plans and changing a portion of the landscape plan from burning bushes to evergreens. Coppola said the biggest issue at the site is failed septic systems. Pape said that the Monmouth County Health Department investigated the septic failures and reported that VSDS had a failure when too much water got into the system. He said VSDS had been washing linens, but is no longer doing so. He said the system was repaired and the county has asked for a drainage element to be placed across the street from the site because ponding occurs when the water has nowhere to go. At last month's board meeting, Donna Tracy, who lives across the street from the Dairy Queen, alleged that her well went bad and she had to get a new one due to the septics at VSDS and Dairy Queen. Pape said the county health department and private companies tested Tracy's old and new well and concluded that there had been no contamination. He said the well was shallow and has been reconstructed. "It's a hardship for the family, but not a result of contamination fromour site," Pape said. Debra Strnad, who also has a home across the street from the site, said she attended the meeting in Pape's office. While she is against the approval, she said Pape told her at themeeting that itwould be done. She told the board, "Let's do it as nicely as possible." Strnad alleged that KinderCare's septic failed in the past. Grbelja said she has charged the township's Environmental Commission to study failed septics in the township. She alleged that a number of the septics had been approved by the FreeholdAreaHealthDepartment (FAHD), with which the town previously had a contract. She said that when themunicipality hired theMonmouth CountyHealthDepartment, the department liftedmany of the previous septic approvals. Pape said that the FAHD approved all three of the septics on the site. Peter andAmy Johnson, whose home is adjacent to the tract's buffer on Carrs Tavern Road, said they did not attend themeeting at Pape's office since it would compromise their position on the proposal. "We oppose the application," said Peter Johnson. "We believe it is purely driven by greed, which is why we abstained from the meeting." His wife said that any further development of the areawould be a bigmistake. She said the devastation to the neighborhood would be permanent and would devalue the quality of life and neighboring properties. Citing increased traffic, she said she haswitnessed four accidents in the area in recent months. "I wonder how Kenneth Pape would feel if this was happening in his yard," she said. Pape said it was no fun being personally attacked, and reminded the board that he has lived in town for 20 years. During that time, the location of the NC zone has never changed, he said. "This family bought their house on the border of the residential/commercial zone," he said. Another neighbor, Shirley Agosta, said she lives within the noticing area, but had never received a notice. She said she only found out about the application while flipping through television channels and coming across themeeting on the PEG channel. Agosta also claimed that her immediate neighbors had not been notified. Planning Board Attorney Michael Steib checked and said Block 51 was not noticed, even though the applicant had received a certified list fromthemunicipal tax assessor and had to rely on it by law. Grbelja said she would find out how the error occurred. Agosta,whowas against the application, said commercial buildings should go on Route 33 or in other more appropriate locations. "Why doesn'tKen Pape build [his] house near the Dairy Queen?" she asked. "Then we'll see howmuch gets built. The traffic on Millstone Road is horrendous." Coppola told the board that it did put conditions on the application that went far beyond township ordinances. If the board denied the application and the matter went to court, those conditionswould be lost, he said.