Minutes of the sandyston township planning board meeting

MINUTES OF THE

SANDYSTON TOWNSHIP PLANNING BOARD MEETING

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013

Meeting was called to order by Marc Cunico, Vice Chairman. This meeting has been duly advertised and meets all requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act.

Present: Absent:

Mr. Fred MacDonald Mr. Ronald Green

Mr. John deJager Mr. Keith Utter

Mr. George Harper

Mr. Joseph Pinzone

Mr. Marc Cunico

Mr. Raj Sinha

Mr. Mike Milligan

Mr. Wes Powers

Mr. Scott Smith

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
A Motion was made by Mr. Pinzone and seconded by Mr. Powers for approval of the minutes of the September 9th Regular Meeting. Mr. Sinha abstained; all others were in favor. The motion was carried and the minutes were approved as submitted.
APPROVAL OF VOUCHERS:
A Motion was made by Mr. Pinzone and seconded by Mr. Sinha to approve the following voucher for payment.

HAROLD E. PELLOW & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Escrow:

#05-2005 Shi Site Plan

Invoice #57554 $ 149.50
Roll Call: Mr. MacDonald, yes; Mr. deJager, yes; Mr. Harper, abstain; Mr. Pinzone, yes; Mr. Cunico, yes; Mr. Sinha, yes; Mr. Milligan, yes; Mr. Powers, yes; and Mr. Smith, yes. The motion was passed.
NEW APPLICATIONS:
#02-2013 Thaddeus Spinks

Minor Subdivision & “C” Variance

Block 2602, Lot 16.01
Mr. Thaddeus Spinks, applicant and Mr. Daniel Kent, engineer were sworn in by Glenn T. Gavan, Esq. for testimony on the above captioned project and Mr. Kent was qualified as expert. It was noted that all paperwork was in order.
The Board reviewed the plat and listened to testimony regarding Mr. Spinks request to subdivide Lot 16.01 to create a new Lot 16.04 consisting of 6 acres and a remainder Lot 16.01 of 39.212 acres +/-.
Mr. Kent indicated the applicant proposes that there are no plans to build at this time, although Mr. Spinks wishes to create this lot for one of his sons as part of his estate planning.

Mr. Spinks was granted a variance to build a barn in front yard of his current home on lot 16.01 In April of 2000. Road frontage variance is requested at this time for both lots of the proposed subdivision.

Mr. Cunico read the September 25, 2013 report from Board Engineer, David B. Simmons, Jr., P.E., L.S., C.M.E., which is included in these minutes as well as a soil investigation cover letter dated April 25, 2011. A correction to the first line of the report is that Lot 16.04 consists of 6 acres.
Mr. Kent also stated that The Sussex County Planning Board has approved the application. The Sussex County Board of Health well and septic approval would be requested at time of future construction. Mr. Pastor has assigned Lot 16.04 as the newly constructed lot. Mr. Kent has also sent a letter to Sandyston Township Fire Department requesting access review.
Mr. Gavan stated that the deed of 2000 did not say what can or cannot be done in that area, but by its nature grants the municipality access for road widening and utility purposes, it is not necessary to compel applicant to spend more money to fix this at this time.
As there were no further questions or comments from board members, the meeting was opened to the public for comment on this application only. There were no comments and the meeting was closed to the public. Mr. Cunico remanded the application to the board for action.
Motion was made by Mr. Harper and seconded by Mr. deJager recommending approval of subdivision as presented with modifications as required by board engineer’s report and two variances for road frontage as 260’ is required; one lot with 50’ and the other with 108’ +.
Roll Call: Mr. MacDonald, yes; Mr. deJager, yes; Mr. Harper, yes; Mr. Pinzone, yes; Mr. Cunico, yes; Mr. Sinha, yes; Mr. Mulligan, yes; Mr. Powers, yes; and Mr. Smith, yes. The motion was passed.

CORRESPONDENCE:
The following correspondence was reviewed:

Letter received September 25, 2013 from David B. Simmons, Jr., P.E., L.S., C.M.E.

Re: Subdivision for Thaddeus J. Spinks

The New Jersey Planner – July/August 2013 Issue
RESOLUTIONS: NONE
OTHER BUSINESS:
Mr. Powers brought up a ‘Best Practices’ question “Has your municipality (1)reviewed within the past year its master plan and zoning ordinances and, if changes are recommended by your engineer, planner or land use board to ensure greater resiliency in the face of flooding and storm damage, with a plan to implement such changes; and (2) amended your zoning ordinances as necessary to allow homeowners to raise conforming structures to the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) set by the new FEMA maps?”
Discussion followed. It was noted that if a structure sustains more than 50% damage it is required to be elevated. If a structure conforms to height limit prior to incident and now must be elevated, height limit may be exceeded and require a variance.
Mr. Gavan stated that a practical way to deal with this is to state in ordinance that if required by FEMA or such other authority, minimum height allowed may exceed limit only by required elevation.
Mr. Gavan will prepare draft ordinance reflecting same.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION:

The meeting was opened to the public.

The meeting was closed to the public.
ADJOURNMENT:

As there was no further business before the Board, a Motion was made by Mr. Pinzone and seconded by Mr. deJager to adjourn the meeting. All were in favor. The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Elizabeth Pinzone

Secretary