Private drive is subject of subdivision debate

BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

JACKSON - Steve and Donna Wedel may have to wait a bit longer for the possible approval of their three-lot subdivision application.

Speaking at an Aug. 7 meeting, Planning Board engineer Douglas Klee said the applicant is proposing to subdivide a 10-acre tract on West Veterans Highway (Route 528), about 700 feet west of Cassville Road (Route 571), into three lots. All lots are conforming with respect to area. The applicant is proposing to access the three lots by a 24-foot-wide stone driveway with a 33-foot-wide access easement on the easterly side of the property.

Variances will be required for frontage where 97 feet exist along West Veterans Highway. Two of the three lots will have no public road frontage.

Two other variances will be required: a side yard setback where 50 feet are required and 20.9 feet are provided; and a variance for insufficient lot depth.

Attorney Joseph Michelini and engineer and planner Michael Geller represented the Wedels.

Geller noted there is a small commercial area at the intersection of Cassville Road and West Veterans Highway that abuts the property. There is a small lake at one end of the property.

"The site is in an R-3 residential zone where there is a minimum lot size of 130,000 square feet or approximately 3 acres (per home)," said Geller. "It is uniquely shaped, very long and very narrow. Its maximum width is approximately 315 feet."

There is plenty of lot area, but the shape of the lot poses design issues, Geller said.

The development plan calls for a present structure to remain and for two new lots with homes to be created. The gravel stone road would begin at Veterans Highway and link the three lots, according to the plan.

"It would terminate in a turn-around," Geller said.

The gravel stone road would be a private driveway and would be maintained by the three homeowners, Geller said. He said that would relieve the township of the burden of maintaining the driveway. There would be no parking along the gravel driveway.

Geller said the Fire Prevention Bureau approved the road as long as parking is not permitted. He noted that the turning radius of the turnaround was appropriate for a fire truck and emergency vehicles.

There will be no access to the lake area except for the last property owner.

A lengthy debate followed during which Mayor Mark Seda, who sits on the board, asked what would happen when one of the three neighbors forgets whose turn it is to plow the driveway.

Geller said there would be a condition, a deed restriction, when purchasing the property that would obligate the owners to plow the driveway.

Seda disagreed and said it will become his problem as mayor.

"The first one will come to the township and say, 'He said, she said, I bought, she bought, I can't deal with [my neighbor],' " said the mayor. "Here's where the problem starts."

Seda said that will eventually lead to a problem for the township.

Other areas of discussion included paving the driveway with concrete, having sufficient parking space off the common road, using no parking signs on the road, and access by township vehicles for emergency purposes.

During the public hearing Janet Gearman, of Perrineville Road, said she had concerns about the proposed road being a private road.

Gearman asked who will be responsible for removing a tree if one falls between the main road and the first house. She posed the same question for a problem between the second and third houses.

She was told that is a legal matter.

She said if she was living in the first house and a tree fell on the road near the third house, she would not want to pay for the tree removal. Gearman said that is the impossibility of having the driveway as a private road.

"Will school buses be going up this road?" she asked. "Will kindergartners have to walk [out to West Veterans Highway] to wait for a school bus?"

The applicant's representatives said a parent will have to walk a child out to the main road.

"What about a special needs child? They get dropped off in front of their home," Gearman said.

Mike Franceschi, of West Veterans Highway, said the proposed plan is a nightmare for the fire department. He said there is no water there to fight a fire.

Responding to questions from Michelini, the applicant's attorney, Franceschi said he is not concerned if there is development as long as it is done properly.

"But there are some serious concerns and I live near those concerns, not you," Franceschi said in response to Michelini's questions. "I don't cut trees. The owners are renting and not living there."

The board voted 9-0 to carry the application until Oct. 23.

In other business, an application for a 902-unit Hovbilt development, along with a separate Hovbilt three-lot subdivision application and a General Development Plan, have been put on hold until Aug. 21, when a new hearing date will be determined. Attorney Donald Daines said there will be nine experts testifying on behalf of Hovbilt.