Part of nursery will be location for new homes
BY LARRY HLAVENKA JR.
Staff Writer

HOWELL — The Planning Board has granted final approval to two applications totaling 28 new homes and preliminary approval to a subdivision which could bring 17 more homes to Howell.

The board voted on the applications at its Dec. 7 meeting.

The M.G. Group received approval to construct 14 homes on 3-acre lots on the site of Roehr’s Nursery, Route 33. As part of the 76-acre parcel, 21 acres will be reserved for the nursery and greenhouse business.

The plan received preliminary approval in May 2005. No waivers were sought. However, the board members did discuss the applicant’s plan for storm water management.

The applicant’s engineer, James Kovacs, said the development will include mini-detention basins in the rear of each yard to accommodate water run-off.

Planning Board engineer Ernie Peters described the basins as 4- to 5-inch “small, low areas with sand on the bottom.”

Due to new storm water management regulations, Peters said, state officials prefer this type of basin as opposed to dry wells or larger detention basins.

“It may sound silly, but you build these big [basins] all around town [and they] turn into mosquito breeding grounds,” Peters said, noting why officials prefer the smaller basin.

Still, just as with a dry well, the homeowner will need to maintain the small basin.

Peters said that when the basins are full of debris, “someone will need to go in there, rake it out and bring some sand.”

Some board members wondered how diligent new homeowners would be with regard to maintenance.

“Let’s look at it realistically: someone buys this home, runs into economic issues, the last thing they are going to be thinking about is maintaining this thing,” board member Curtis Vislocky said.

Board member James Burgess said it should not make a difference. He said maintenance of yards and stormwater management facilities are part of being a homeowner.

“Like a septic system or a water heater,” Peters said.

The board approved the plan in a 7-0 vote.

The second approval was for Haystock Woods and 14 new homes on a cul-de-sac off Locust Avenue. Lot sizes will range from 15,000-plus square feet to about 34,000 square feet. One residence will be a duplex that will help the township fulfill its state-mandated obligation to provide affordable housing in town.

Affordable housing as defined by the state Council on Affordable Housing is sold or rented at below-market rates to a person who has an income that meets regional guidelines established by the state. In the Haystock Woods application, project engineer Graham Macfarlane said that due to removing trees, the applicant needed to replant a certain number of trees or make a payment to Howell’s tree fund.

However, Macfarlane said he believed the applicant was faced with a hardship due to the fact that more trees could have been planted, but more would have to be removed as well. He said the mathematics could eventually work out, but he did not see the point of cutting down trees just to satisfy a requirement. He did not feel the applicant was bound to make the payment to the tree fund.

Howell’s certified tree expert Zig Panek disagreed, saying the issue was common.

“I would not give any relief at all,” Panek said.

Planning Board Chairman Paul Schneider was even more direct.

“Just put the money in the fund,” he said.

The applicant agreed and the application was unanimously approved.

The final application was a 17-home subdivision from property owner Alexander Onoshko. The site is off Aldrich Road near the municipal park-and-ride facility.

Lot sizes would range from 15,000 to 16,000 square feet.

Project engineer William Joeltz said that on the 9-acre parcel, a new cul-de-sac would be constructed, along with curbs and sidewalks.

Depending on the board’s decision, the applicant requested either a waiver or “diminimus exception” for a spacing issue between the new cul-de-sac and Coral Drive. The distance the applicant provided was 140 feet, when 150 feet is required.

Joeltz explained that the road could be moved to meet the requirement, but it would put the new street and the proposed houses closer to the parking facility and to Route 9.

For that reason, he believed it would be more appropriate to request the small exception.

Vislocky was not completely at ease in doing so.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t feel comfortable about this,” he said. “I just think with this subdivision, it’s real dangerous. It’s a horrible location for houses. I don’t know why anyone would want to live there.”

Those points were reinforced when resident Dominick Carnevale approached the board. He lives near the proposed development, tucked away in existing woods.

“This is going to be a disaster here,” he said. “This is a horrible spot for another street. You’re going to have a head-on collision.”

Due to the proposed removal of trees and a reduced buffer, Carnevale expressed concern that toxic fumes from buses could enter his home and the proposed homes.

“I don’t know who would buy a house backing up to a bus terminal,” he said.

Carnevale also expressed concern that lights from the park-and-ride lot would shine into his house due to the removal of trees to make way for the new houses. He referred to it as “from being alone in the woods to living on the moon.”

Vislocky told him the board cannot deny the application based on those reasons alone.

Panek assured Carnevale that evergreens would be used to fill in the gaps.

The application was unanimously approved.