RAMSEY ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT Minutes of the Regular Meeting Held September 19, 2012 The Chairman, Howard Cantor called the regular meeting of the Board of Adjustment of the Borough of Ramsey to order at 8:03 PM. Mr. Cantor announced that notice of this meeting, stating its time and place, has been published in The Record and The Ridgewood News in accordance with the Sunshine Law and that notice was also posted on the bulletin board of the Municipal Building. Mr. Cantor also pointed out the location of the fire exits. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE led the Pledge of Allegiance. ATTENDANCE PRESENT ABSENT Howard Cantor, Chairman Luke Chamberlin Richard Daul, Alternate No. 2 Abbas Safai @ 8:07 Thomas Scuderi, Alternate No. 1 Vanessa Jachzel, Council Liaison Robert E. Landel, Board Attorney Richard Mammone, Zoning Officer Barbara McCausland, Board Secretary PUBLIC HEARINGS Alan & Tami Azouri, Block 3204, Lot 7, 83 Momar Drive. Variance to allow a 36' front yard where 40' is required and side yard of 8.5' where 10' is required. Alan & Tami Azouri were sworn in by Mr. Landel. Mr. Azouri stated they want to build a covered porch that will span the left front side of the house. Mr. Azouri said their lot is undersized for the R-3 zone. Allan Braggin 25 Franklin Street gave his personal opinion about this application.
BOARD ACTION A roll call vote to approve this application is as follows: Board Member Ayes Nays Abstain Absent Howard Cantor Luke Chamberlin Richard Daul Abbas Safai Thomas Scuderi CARRIED Keith & Caroline Dowd, Block 1802, Lot 40, 29 Hopper Terrace. New home requires a variance for building coverage of 18.46% where 15% is allowed and front yard of 35.5' where 40' is allowed. Keith & Caroline Dowd and Robert Adamo were sworn in by Mr. Landel. Mr. Adamo is a New Jersey licensed architect since 2002 and has testified for numerous other towns. Mr. Adamo stated the Dowd's are looking for a new home at 29 Hopper Terrace; they love the cul-de-sac; they love their property. The Dowd's have asked us to design them a new house for the property. Mr. Adamo described the design of the proposed new home. Mrs. Strollo stated to Mr. Adamo she needs something that justifies the overage on the building coverage on a new structure and she is trying to find that but she is not there yet with this application with regard to just that aspect so if there are any other opportunities to shave that or even part of that 515 square feet on the building coverage she would like to hear if there other options at all. Mr. Adamo said it is fair to say there is always an option so it would be incorrect to say there isn't. Mr. Adamo said the hardship we are looking for more first floor needs than second floor needs which he knows is not a hardship it is a design request. Mr. Adamo said if we have to cut the square footage down of course we could it's a brand new house. Mr. Gyss remarked he does share the same concerns as Mrs. Strollo about the overage. Mr. Gyss asked the Dowd's why they couldn't design around their home because there are a lot of applications that come to the Board that work with the existing design rather than knock down a house. Mrs. Dowd said they did an extensive search whether that is real estate property or renovating the home; the current layout of their home is a bi-level style. Other architects had said that renovating or adding on to a bi-level just doesn't look right. 2
Mr. Chamberlin also commented he concurs with his colleagues concerns with the overage. Mr. Chamberlin said the other thing he is struggling with is that you have a very nice shape yard, a very nice size yard and you're starting from scratch and even with all those things in your favor you're still over building coverage by quite a bit. Allen Braggin gave his opinion and reasons why this application should not be approved. James Richardson 30 Hopper Terrace was sworn in by Mr. Landel. Mr. Richardson wanted to cast his support for this application; as far as he sees it the public benefit is that there is going to be a wonderful brand new house across from his house that is going to increase the value of his home. Mr. Richardson said the design of the house is perfect within the fit and scale of the homes on the street all of us will benefit. Mr. Adamo said in talking with the applicant they have asked him to make a closing statement for them. The applicant is anxious to move forward; we would like to request instead of 515 square foot variance can we lower it by a 150 square feet (366 sq. ft., 17.45%) that would keep the general look of the home; it would keep the orientation of the inside of the house and it wouldn't require a major redesign for his client. Mr. Adamo said we are listening we do understand the dilemma the Board is under; we feel that we have tried our best to answer your questions and mitigate the concerns. Mr. Torchin said he is still struggling with the soft C variance on the coverage simply because he understands that this is something that is beneficial to you but he does not see the public benefits outweighing the detriments. Mr. Chamberlin agrees with Mr. Torchin. Mr. Chamberlin stated when you have a completely clean slate you can build a 3,500 square foot house; the design limitations don't seem to be difficult to meet that; there are lots and lots of designs you could use to build a house with the same square footage that meet the code. Mr. Gyss agrees with his colleagues. Mr. Gyss stated he does not believe a hardship was demonstrated so that will be his reason for voting not in favor. Mr. Cantor stated we are talking about totally new construction and totally new construction eliminates a lot of the hardships that would otherwise exist and as far as he can stretch he can't get to a soft C variance so he will have to vote no with great sorrow. Mr. Cantor said right now with the rules we operate under he can not vote in favor. BOARD ACTION A roll call vote to deny this application is as follows: Board Member Ayes Nays Abstain Absent 3
Howard Cantor Luke Chamberlin Richard Daul Abbas Safai Thomas Scuderi CARRIED Ramsey Spring, LLC. Block 3608, Lot 5, 555 N. Franklin Tpke. Variance to allow 111 existing parking spaces where 121 are required for a new tenant TCBY with 16 seats and 192" of bench seating. Ira Weiner Esq. is representing Ramsey Spring. Mr. Weiner stated that because of parking requirement for TCBY we are a little bit over what exists in the existing parking shopping lot so we are here for a parking variance. Bahman Izadmehr was sworn in by Mr. Landel. Mr. Izadmehr is a traffic engineer with Bertin Engineering. Mr. Izadmehr explained the traffic report. The applicant proposes to occupy the existing 1,634 SF vacant retail space with a TCBY. Mr. Izadmehr said the site is located on North Franklin Turnpike in between Spring Street and Orchard Street. The parking demands for each store are: JP Morgan Chase Bank occupies 4,500 SF 23 parking spaces; TCBY 18 parking spaces; FED E 9 parking spaces; Starbucks 22 parking spaces; and Walgreens 11,995 SF 60 parking spaces with a credit of 12 spaces for storage a total of 120 parking spaces. Mr. Weiner stated that they just had stickers made for the employees and they are now going to start to park in designated spaces away from the congested area. Mr. Izadmehr stated the proposed tenant (TCBY) will not have a substantial negative impact on parking. Christine Meyer 204 Desimone Court was sworn in by Mr. Landel. Ms. Meyer said the number of parking spots is not the biggest issue it is where they are because she has walked across the street twice, three times in one day sometimes maybe once a week it's a nightmare. Any traffic coming around the Chase bank want to park in front of FED E to get to Starbucks; they will not walk, they will not park at the north end and they don't look if you're walking. Ms. Meyer said it is not just the parking spots it is really the traffic flow. Ms. Meyer stated she has a real problem with the flow of traffic and how scary it is when you're walking or you're driving in the area. Ms. Meyer said that has been her observation. 4
Allan Braggin 25 Franklin Street. Mr. Braggin stated that based on previous testimony of a wireless carrier store and the intensity of that particular type of store and since that store has left he doesn't believe that the TCBY will be as intensive as the previous tenant AT & T wireless. This application will be continued at the October 17, 2012 Board of Adjustment meeting. RESOLUTIONS MEMORIALIZED Don Fletcher, Dorothy Fletcher, Impruv LLC., Block 3802, Lot 7, 465 N. Franklin Tpke. Variance to allow 42 parking spaces where 67 spaces are required was approved. Richard Muser II, Block 1102, Lot 22, 34 Allen Court. Variance to allow a 33' front yard where 40' is required, variance to allow 21.5% coverage where 20% is allowed was approved. MINUTES Howard Cantor asked for a motion to accept the minutes of the regular meeting of the Board of Adjustment of August 15, 2012. All the members who were present at that meeting carried the motion unanimously. ADJOURNMENT The Board of Adjustment meeting was adjourned at 10:50 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Barbara McCausland Board of Adjustment Secretary 5