Braemar Works Through Environmental
Issues
- September 2002
In August, the Chatham Township Committee approved the
developer's agreement for Braemar’s planned townhouse complex
for adults over age 55 on the 9-acre Heyl rose farm on Green
Village Road. The Planning Board has given all necessary approvals
for the site plan and subdivision.
Before Braemar can build, it must remove 4 underground
petroleum product storage tanks on the site (two 10,000 gallon
tanks and two 500 gallon tanks). In addition, soil remediation is
necessary, since arsenic and lead in concentrations well above
acceptable limits have been noted at one or two former greenhouse
locations.
The wetlands and transition areas on the southeast corner of
the property by state law must remain as open space. Since it is
well documented that even protected wetlands have been filled and
built upon, the Chatham Township Environmental Commission, in a
letter dated March 26, 2002, recommended that the Planning Board
require a conservation easement in perpetuity to provide extra
protection for these areas.
The Township Engineer and the Planning Board ruled out a
conservation easement, when faced with the DEP’s requirement for
revegetation of wetlands and wetlands buffer areas in conservation
easements. The Environmental Commission had suggested the
applicant be responsible for the mandated DEP revegetation, but
the decision for no easement eliminated the discussion of
responsibility for maintaining the wetlands.
The Planning Board did require a trail easement so that the
wetlands could conceptually be added to the Township's planned
walking/biking path that is part of the Township’s Open Space
plan. A study of topography and drainage patterns and a DEP permit
would be required before the creation of a community path or
boardwalk through the trail easement.
Drainage Plan Under Scrutiny for Oak Knoll Athletic Fields
Project
- September 2002
In September, Oak Knoll School of Summit presented to the
Planning Board storm water runoff calculations for its two
proposed playing fields on 13.4 acres near Green Village and
Shunpike Roads. The school gave a very detailed description of its
planned ground infiltration areas and storm water detention
basins.
The property contains wetlands that are headwaters for a
tributary to Black Brook. Some of these wetlands will be saved and
some filled in. To achieve the Township’s "no net
increase" in stormwater runoff requirement, the rain
infiltration and detention design must make up for the lost
wetlands and lost evapotranspiration of the 800 trees that are
slated to be cut down.
In August, the Chatham Township Environmental Commission had
written a letter stating that it was unclear from Oak Knoll’s
written plans exactly where the water from the site’s
infiltration basins would ultimately discharge. The Commission
also asked if the sizing of the subsurface storage and
infiltration basins took into account the water that would be lost
through evapotranspiration from the planned removal of
approximately 800 trees on the site.
The Commission also requested that functional shade trees
become part of the landscaping plan. The original landscaping plan
was concerned only with forming a visual buffer between the fields
and Green Village Road. The Environmental Commission cited the
need for shade trees along the field peripheries and in the
parking lot. The Chatham Township Tree Commission offered to work
closely with the applicant on replacement of trees.
Based on the lack of plans for islands of trees in the parking
lot, it appears that the school has not, or at least not yet,
consulted the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s
Best Management Practice Guide to minimize sheet flow runoff.
Exceptional Resource Value Wetlands on Loantaka Lane South
- September 2002
Chatham’s third piece of land use news also comes from the
more rural Green Village section of the Township. An applicant
requested a Letter of Interpretation from the DEP on the extent
and classification of wetlands on the former Stan Medina property
on Loantaka Lane South. The project called for subdividing the
parcel into 2 new lots, plus redeveloping the existing house.
The neighbors hired an environmental consultant who identified
a threatened and endangered species on the tract. State law
requires that wetlands which are habitat to endangered species be
classified as "exceptional resource value." Exceptional
resource value wetlands must have a 75 to150 foot buffer, as
opposed to the intermediate resource value wetlands buffer of only
25 to 50 feet. The larger buffer means that the extent of
development will be substantially reduced.
Storm Water Concerns for Oak Knoll’s Proposed Playing Fields
- June
2002
In late June, Oak Knoll School was scheduled to present to the
Chatham Township Planning Board further plans for its two proposed
playing fields on 13.4 acres near Green Village and Shunpike Roads.
The current plan to fill wetlands and remove over 800 trees will
make it difficult for Oak Knoll to meet Chatham Township’s
"no net increase" in storm water runoff ordinance. The
school has hired Princeton Hydro to perform storm water
calculations. In February, Oak Knoll gave a nod to the storm water
problem by submitting a revised proposal that saved 50 trees.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) seems
to be firm on its retraction of its previously-issued wetlands
violation notice for Oak Knoll. In January 2002, the DEP responded
unfavorably to Chatham Township Environmental Commission’s
September letter requesting reasons for the DEP’s retraction of
Oak Knoll’s Notice of Violation (NOV) of the Freshwater Wetlands
Protection Act. The DEP stated that it could not prove that two of
the wetlands on the property had been connected by water flowing
through a pipe. "Efforts to obtain supporting documentation,
including photographs, were unsuccessful," said the DEP in the
January letter.
In contrast, last year the DEP had found enough evidence of
connected wetlands to issue the Notice of Violation, following a
police report that someone had brought in a backhoe and crushed a
pipe through which a culvert flowed between two wetlands on the Oak
Knoll property and into a feeder stream of the Great Swamp. The
culvert had apparently been piped years ago to allow a road to go
over it. In June 2001, Oak Knoll’s consultant, John Crow, met
privately with the DEP on the site. In apparent response to Mr.
Crow, the DEP in July 2001 retracted its NOV and issued a general
permit to fill the "isolated" wetlands.
Planning Board and DEP Consider Sterling’s Townhouse
Proposal: Steep Slopes and Drainage are Key
- June 2002
On July 1st, the Chatham Township Planning Board was
scheduled to further deliberate the Sterling application to build
townhouses on the 30-acre site near the intersection of Shunpike
and Green Village Roads. Until the Planning Board gives final
approval of the application, the legal suit brought by GSWA is
stayed. GSWA filed a suit in December to appeal the Planning Board’s
decision to bifurcate the approval process. GSWA maintains that
the Board did not have the legal authority to decide last October
to approve a steep slopes variance separate from the rest of the
site plan.
The GSWA continues to make progress toward preserving the
natural drainage system on the wooded site by ensuring that NJDEP
is thorough in its permit review process. Sterling recently
provided the required alternatives analysis to the DEP for its
stream encroachment permit and for its dam permit. GSWA also
recently submitted its own alternatives analyses to the DEP.
In March, the DEP had rescinded the water–lowering permit
that was to allow Sterling to drain the pond to make a clay-lined
detention basin. The Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries had found that
"The permit was erroneously issued prior to any review of
associated information regarding the scope and details of the
entire project." The DEP specified that the functioning
"lentic" ecosystem, formed by the existing stream, pond,
and wetlands, should remain in place to slow flood waters and
filter sediments and pollutants.
GSWA maintains that Sterling’s original plan for the
detention basin would simply release 47 acres worth of untreated
water into a pipe, which would hurtle it downstream through the
Heyl property in the Great Swamp.
Superfund Status Requested for Rolling Knolls Landfill -
April 2002
The Rolling Knolls landfill, which leaches contaminants into
the ground and surface waters of the Great Swamp National Wildlife
Refuge (GSNWR), may be on its way to clean up with federal
Superfund dollars. In April, Governor James McGreevey sent a
letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking if the
187-acre site located off Britten Road in Chatham Township can be
listed as a federal Superfund project. 42 acres of the site lie
within the GSNWR boundaries.
Such a clean up would benefit not only the visitors and
wildlife in the Refuge, but also the communities that receive
drinking water from New Jersey American Water Company. A branch of
Black Brook runs through the toxic landfill, and the Loantaka
Brook runs about 2000 feet from it. Eventually the water in these
brooks, like all water in the Great Swamp, flows out the
Millington Gorge into the Passaic River, the source of some of New
Jersey American’s water supply.
Rolling Knolls operated in the 1960s as Chatham Township’s
municipal dump and as a pharmaceutical dump. Contaminant outflow
is a common occurrence from waste sites that were created before
"sanitary" landfill regulations. New landfills must be
lined with an impermeable layer at their bottoms, so that liquids
remain on site. In addition, sanitary landfills pump up the "leachate"
from the bottom, clean it and release relatively pure water back
into local ecosystems.
EPA records on the Rolling Knolls site date back to 1981. Some
investigation of the spread of contaminants off-site took place in
1984. Then in 1989, the U.S. Geographical Services performed a
more detailed study, revealing that pharmaceutical waste was still
leaching off the site. Many carcinogens were identified, including
a barbiturate that can cause fetal malformations.
In 1997, GSWA got involved. Paul Fox, an environmental
engineer, volunteered to compile all the government reports on
Rolling Knolls. He wrote, "Contaminants found in surface and
subsurface soil have been detected in off-site surface water,
sediments, groundwater and fish." Fox concluded that
chemicals from the dump had degraded surrounding environment
beyond "regulatory standards."
The Environmental Protection Agency, at the request of GSWA,
completed tests and a report on Rolling Knolls in 2000. It found
that "low levels of mercury, PCB’s, and pharmaceutical
compounds are present at the site, and these contaminants are
leaching into the ground and surface waters."
A Superfund remediation would seal in or remove these
chemicals, so that people and wildlife in the region would not be
exposed to their harmful effects. The date or likelihood of a
Superfund clean up is not yet known.
Watershed
Association Appeals Planning Board Decision - Chatham
Township, December 2001
On December 3rd, the Great Swamp Watershed Association filed a
complaint with the state Superior Court in Morristown against
Sterling Properties and the Chatham Township Planning Board.
Sterling plans to build 56 townhouses on a 30-acre wooded parcel
that is an aquifer recharge zone near the corner of Shunpike and
Green Village Roads. The appeal raises procedural as well as
substantive objections to the Planning Board's granting of a
"C" variance on the steep slopes protection ordinance.
The Watershed Association contests a bifurcation of the site
plan approval process. The Planning Board on October 1st, in
accordance with Sterling's request, agreed to vote separately on a
steep slopes variance before voting on the entire site plan. Then
on October 15th, the Planning Board voted in favor of the steep
slopes variance while leaving site plan approval for a later date.
The Watershed Association contends that the Municipal Land Use Law
of New Jersey allows splitting an application into two parts only
for the purpose of granting "D" variances, and only for
zoning boards of adjustment, not for planning boards.
The Watershed Association's goal for this 30-acre site is to
minimize the townhouse complex's damage to the public drinking
water aquifer beneath and to the
flood-containing qualities of the vegetation and terrain. The
Association also seeks to preserve as much of the natural beauty of
the site.
The steep slopes variance makes stormwater runoff more
difficult to control. There is a pond on the property which drains
into the Great Swamp, and any additional runoff caused by the
construction would endanger the "species and resources"
in the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, says the complaint.
Steep slopes, once cleared of vegetation, cause much faster rates
of stormwater flow and erosion. The township's ordinance protects
steep slopes of 15% grade or greater. The Sterling land has slopes
of 20-25% on two sides of the property.
In December 2000, planner John Thonet completed a report, on
behalf of the Great Swamp Watershed Association, showing that
Sterling could rearrange the
placement of townhouses to leave the steep slopes in tact and
still fit in 56 units. Sterling and the Planning Board received
written copies of the Thonet report, but have so far chosen not to
adopt the more environmentally benign Thonet plan. Mr. Thonet
formally presented his alternative site plan to the Planning Board
in the spring of 2001.
Approval of the final site plan will depend heavily on
stormwater issues. The New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection must approve Sterling's provisions for stream
encroachment and safety of the dam that contains the pond on the
property. Also, the Township Stormwater Consultant, Michael
Bennett, must certify that there will be no net increase in
stormwater runoff from the developed site as compared to its
original, natural state.
Oak Knoll
Athletic Fields before Planning Board - fall 2001
Oak Knoll School of Summit had it first hearing this October
before the Planning Board on its proposal to build athletic fields
on 13.4 acres off Green Village Road near Shunpike Road. The
School received a New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection (NJDEP) permit to fill wetlands, after the DEP, in
July, retracted a notice of violation on the crushing of a pipe in
a culvert on the property through which water flowed from a
wetlands to a feeder stream of the Great Swamp.
With evidence of the culvert buried, the DEP contended that the
wetland was isolated, and issued a permit to fill the isolated
wetlands. Permits to fill wetlands
connected to streams are much harder to obtain than those for
isolated wetlands. The Chatham Township Environmental Commission
wrote a letter to the DEP in September, requesting reasons for the
retraction of the notice of violation. The DEP has not yet responded
to the letter.
The main issue still to be decided is compliance with the
town's no net increase in storm water runoff ordinance. Meeting
the township's stormwater management requirements will be
difficult because the property, when developed, will lose much of
its natural ability to store and absorb stormwater. First, the
wetlands will no longer be there to hold water. Second, a large
part of the heavy vegetation on about 4 acres of the site will be
cleared, and with it, the land's ability to soak up water through
tree and plant roots.
The school, based in Summit, has only one non-regulation field
on its 7-acre campus, and says it needs the space for its field
hockey, soccer, lacrosse and softball teams.
Kathy Abbott
Clean up of Toxics in Ground Water Continues at
Kessler Site - Chatham Township, July 2001
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
reported in May that, since it began site
remediation in March 2000, it has recovered an estimated 2,588
gallons of free phase hydrocarbons that were floating on the ground
water under the site of the former Hickory Tree Garage. The
layer of floating petrochemicals has been up to one foot thick at
some of the monitoring wells, according to data taken from
monitoring wells since 1995. The carcinogenic chemicals found
to violate the NJDEP Groundwater Quality Standards are Methyl
Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and
xylenes (BTEX), and Tertiary Butyl Alcohol (TBA).
The DEP reported in July that the floating free product was
removed by a vapor extraction system, and
that only a "sheen" was left. The next step is
ground water extraction, which Hickory Tree expected to begin in
August, after replacement of a burnt out motor. The ground water is
to be cleaned by a low profile air stripper and liquid phase
granular activated carbon, and then discharged back into the aquifer
on the Kessler property.
To detect the extent of the contaminant plume, Hickory Tree Garage
recently installed a new monitoring well behind the Chatham Hill
apartments at the intersection of Hickory Place and Green Village
Road, which is approximately 500 feet from the site. A ground
water sampling from this new well on March 30th, 2001
indicated no ground water contaminants had traveled to the well.
Yet MTBE has been detected at high levels at a closer monitoring
well behind the apartment complex, and is therefore flowing under
the apartments. The DEP says, however, that the MTBE
"does not pose an immediate human health risk, since the
contaminant level is too low to pose a vapor threat to the area and
there is no ground water use within this area."
The DEP also stated, "the Great Swamp is not at risk from the
discharges at the former Hickory Tree Garage site."
This is in part due to the intervention of Chatham Township in 1997.
The Township did not
approve of the original DEP plan to discharge the treated ground
water into the storm sewer.
State Green Acres Grant Approved for Chatham
- Chatham
Township June 2001
On Monday June 4, the NJ State Senate approved a Green
Acres funding bill that would grant Chatham Township
$500,000. The township expects to use some of its
Green Acres funds by the end of this year to acquire
three lots totaling 35 acres off Green Village Road.
The New Jersey Conservation Foundation has held this
open space for nearly a decade, with the purpose of
eventually selling it to Chatham. The transaction
will be a "bargain sale," in which the foundation
sells the land, which has a total assessed value of
$578,500, to the township for only $300,000. Since
the state Green Acres Grant pays up to 50 percent of
the assessed value, or about $290,000, all the Chatham
would have to pay from its own budget would be about
$10,000, plus the costs the Foundation incurred from
holding the property.
Chatham Attempts to Preserve Side Yard Size
- April 2001
In April, the Chatham Township Committee had introduced an
amendment to preserve current yardsizes. The need for such an
amendment arose from the current trend to redevelop existing lots to
the maximum building envelope allowed by current building
ordinances. The amendment proposed to increase side yard
setbacks in the predominant half-acre R-3 zoning areas to a combined
40 feet, instead of the current 30
feet. The amendment did not pass, because of concerns that it
would put too many existing homes out of conformance.
The Planning Board then decided to review the legislation, in order
to reintroduce it in a more palatable form. Such an amendment
is designed to preserve Chatham's ability to absorb its storm water
and recharge its aquifers, as well as preserve the rural aesthetic
character of Chatham.
Sterling Proposal
Approaching Compliance with Ordinances - Chatham Township,
March 22, 2001
Sterling Properties proposal to build 56
townhouses near the intersection of Shunpike and Green Village Roads
in Chatham Township made some headway this winter. The
township engineer and the engineer for Sterling seem to have come to
general agreement on how to meet the requirement for no net increase
in storm water runoff. One problem included in the
calculations is the very large amount of storm water flowing onto
the site from two neighboring tracts. Another variable is how
much flood storage area to allocate for an earthen dam on the site,
which the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection expects
to define as "Class 2."
The planned development, which in its original form four years ago
required many types of variances, now requires only steep slopes
variances. Planning Board members have suggested at recent
meetings that the project can be redesigned to bring it into
compliance with the steep slope ordinance as well.
Chatham Township to Buy Riverwalk Open Space Tract
- March 9, 2001
The Chatham Township Committee passed an ordinance on March 9 to purchase 11 wooded acres on River
Road. The tract would form a "riverwalk" link n the planned Heritage Greenway, a proposed walking/biking path
running through the township.
The property is valued at $240,000, and is owned by Joan and Frank Blatz, Jr., Phyllis
Dolin, Elizabeth Puglio and Andrew and Suzanne Herron. An $81,000 grant
from the Morris County open space fund and money from the township's Green Acres grant will go towards the
purchase of this property.
Chatham
Township Intends to Buy 2 Tracts for Open Space - January 25,
2001
The Chatham Township Committee
introduced ordinances on January 25th, to purchase two parcels of
land totaling about 12 acres. Both parcels would form links in the
planned Heritage Greenway, a proposed walking/biking path that
would run through the township from border to border. A public
hearing and vote on the proposals will take place February 8th.
One property is 11 wooded acres on
River Road, along the Passaic River. The other tract is 1.25 acres
at 425 Southern Boulevard, adjacent to the Great Swamp National
Wildlife Refuge and not far from the township-owned Nash Field
extension parcel.
The larger tract is valued at
$240,000, and is owned by Joan and Frank Blatz, Jr., Phyllis Dolin,
Elizabeth Puglio and Andrew and Suzanne Herron. The smaller tract
is owned by Melody Motto, and has not yet been assigned a fair
market value.
Funds for the purchases will come
from the county open space fund, a Green Acres bond and the
township's open space fund.
Discussion on Wetlands Included in Review of
Plans for Athletic Fields--Chatham Township - January 16,
2001
On January 16, Chatham Township Planning Board
Chair Martha Hellriegel said that Oak Knoll School's plans for
athletic fields off Green Village Road were under review by
Marshall Frost, the consulting engineer for the Planning Board.
Oak Knoll had applied to the DEP for a permit to
fill in what seemed to be "isolated" wetlands. But the
DEP has determined that the wetlands are not isolated and is
discussing possible solutions with the school. It is relatively
easy to get a permit to fill isolated wetlands. Wetlands
interconnected with other wetlands are protected much more
carefully by the DEP.
The most recent plan for the fields is changed
slightly from the one submitted last July. The number of softball
diamonds is reduced from two to one. A full sized track encircling
a soccer field now replaces tennis courts. The number of parking
spaces went down from 74 spaces to 60.
The only buildings proposed for the 13.4-acre
tract, are a 1,200 square foot pavilion for use as an office and
restrooms, and a 1,800 square foot covered shelter. The school,
based in Summit, has only one non-regulation field on its 7-acre
campus, and says it needs the space for its field hockey, soccer,
lacrosse and softball teams. Bettina Hummerstone, Head of the
school, said Oak Knoll still anticipates sharing the fields in
some way with Chatham Township.
Sterling Townhouse Proposal Faces Storm Water Problems
- Chatham Twp.
On December 18th, the Chatham Township Planning Board discussed the storm water management plan for Sterling Properties' proposed 56-unit "Rose Valley" townhouse project on the former Tublitz estate near the corner of Shunpike and Green Village Roads.
Rocco Palmieri, engineer for Sterling Properties, said that Sterling's stormwater management plan would reduce the stormwater runoff from the 30-acre site by 25 percent, and that Sterling would comply with the township's stormwater management plan and Department of Environmental Protection regulations on wetlands, streams and ponds.
But two major problems with excessive runoff from neighboring properties still have to be dealt with. The adjacent development on Rachel Avenue in Madison has a drainage system that dumps water onto the Sterling properties site via a cement headwall. This storm sewer outlet has created a huge erosion problem on the Sterling land. In addition, sheets of rainwater flow from the Madison Golf Club onto the lower lying Sterling tract.
Another water problem is presented by the existing earthen dam that now creates a pond on the property from a small stream. The dam will have to be reinforced and classified by the DEP for flooding hazard. If the DEP labels the dam Class 2, it will need a larger area for flood storage and the number of townhouse units will have to be reduced from 56 to 54.
Over the past four years, Sterling has reduced the number of proposed townhouses from 122, to 96 to the present 56. They have also significantly reduced the number of variances required, especially height variances and steep slopes variances. The size of the individual townhouses, however, has grown with the reduction of the number of units proposed. At the Planning Board meeting on December 18, Mr. Palmieri said that the 56 individual townhouse buildings were larger than the original 122 units proposed in 1997, but that the total impervious coverage was less. Mr. Palmieri promised to deliver to the Board exact numbers on the net gain or loss in building size.
Kessler Site in Chatham Township Leaking MTBE and Benzene into Groundwater
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) recently notified Chatham Township that the carcinogenic petrochemicals MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) and benzene have been seeping into the groundwater and migrating from the construction site of the Kessler Assisted Living Facility on Southern Boulevard near Hickory Tree Mall in Chatham Township.
The DEP's Bureau of Underground Storage Tanks stated in a letter that Hickory Tree Garage, the former occupant of the Kessler site and the party responsible for the clean up, has not met the conditions of the Remedial Action Workplan that the DEP had approved in 1997. Specifically, Hickory Tree Garage "failed to initiate" the required "monthly sampling of effluent discharge and quarterly reporting" of results from groundwater test wells set up on and off the site.
Despite problems with monthly sampling, existing data supplied to the DEP show that a plume of MTBE extends at least as far as a monitoring well across the street from the Kessler Site and behind the Chatham Hill Apartments. MTBE, a gasoline additive that is now being phased out because of its danger to the drinking water supply, has been found at levels above the NJDEP Groundwater Quality Standards since the first reading from this well in July 1999.
To delineate the extent of migration of MTBE, the DEP in a letter dated January 2000 required Hickory Tree Garage to establish a new monitoring well downgradient from the monitoring well behind the apartments. In August, the DEP repeated the request, stating it "reserves the right to implement full enforcement measures."
So far, Hickory Tree Garage has not established this well, but in October it's environmental engineering firm, Resource Control Corporation of Rancocas, NJ, promised that it would install a well down gradient from the well behind the apartments by December 30, 2000.
Groundwater monitoring data that Hickory Tree Garage supplied to NJDEP in recent years indicate that MTBE has been found at high levels in a monitoring well at the edge of the property bordering Southern Boulevard since monitoring records began in 1995. Benzene has been recorded at dangerous levels at a monitoring well just across Southern Boulevard since 1996. On site, both these chemicals have been found at unacceptable levels in ground water monitoring wells at various times in the past several years.
It is likely that construction activities have increased the flow of hazardous chemicals to downstream neighbors. Kessler received final site plan approval for its project in July 1999, and subsequently the readings at the monitoring well behind the apartments registered MTBE levels at two and three times the pre-construction reading.
If MTBE is traveling downgradient of the apartments, it enters the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, placing at potential risk plants, wildlife and visitors in the Refuge. In addition, it raises the specter of contaminated public drinking water. MTBE has proven resistant to removal from drinking water. The Great Swamp is the headwaters of the Passaic River, which is a source of drinking water for customers of the New Jersey American Water Company. New Jersey American Water Company serves Chatham Township residents, including Kessler's eventual tenants.
Resource Control Corporation, in a Groundwater Quality and Remedial Action Progress Report for the Hickory Tree Garage/Kessler property, reported to the DEP that building contractors for Kessler have "destroyed or otherwise made non-accessible" four groundwater quality monitoring wells on the site.
Despite this loss, Kessler is continuing with construction, and expects to be finished by spring 2001. Ms. Marianne Langan of Kessler Assisted Living Residence I, Juniper Partners, Montclair, NJ, has received copies of correspondence between the DEP and Hickory Tree Garage.
Oak Knoll Considers Environmental Issues in Athletic Fields Plan
- Chatham Twp., July 17, 2000
At the meeting of the Chatham Township Planning Board on July 17, the Oak Knoll School showed a new sensitivity to environmental issues in its design of proposed athletic fields off Green Village Road. The school's engineer, Stanley Omland, said that the development of 13.4 acres of open space into athletic fields would "respect" the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
The school is making an effort to reduce storm water run off by designing the irrigation and drainage systems of the fields into an "under drainage system, recharging surface water into the ground." In addition, the parking lot, rather than being an impervious blacktop, would be gravel.
Another example of this respect for the environment is that the school obtained from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) a Letter of Interpretation regarding wetlands for each of the five different parcels to be used for the facility. Olmland said that there is a small area of wetlands in the center of the complex that would be negatively impacted, but that he was "positive we will get the permits" from the DEP to build.
A tree survey presented at the meeting showed five specimen trees—three beeches, one red oak and one tulip.
Southern Boulevard School Water Drainage Plan OK'd
- Chatham Twp., July 17, 2000
On July 17, the Chatham Township Planning Board gave conditional approval to the Board of Education's drainage plan for its new addition at Southern Boulevard School. The roof drainage and groundwater plan is an infiltration-retention design, composed of dry wells and a retention basin. Conditions still to be met were additional borings for soil permeability and a maintenance plan for the retention basin. The retention basin will be built behind a new parking lot, which will replace an existing playground to the right of the school.
Sterling Properties Scales Down Townhouse Proposal to Fit Environmental and Building Ordinances
- Chatham Twp.
In July, Sterling Properties submitted another application before the Chatham Township Planning Board to develop thirty acres at the intersection of Shunpike and Green Village roads. This time Sterling proposes building 56 luxury townhouses on this land formerly known as the Tublitz property, a vast reduction from the 122-units it first proposed over three years ago.
The new proposed townhouse complex, called Rose Valle, also adheres more closely to the Township's building codes and environmental ordinances than Sterling's previous plans. Rose Valle would require no height variances, would involve much less construction on steep slopes, and would destroy fewer trees.
Over the past few years, neighbors and the vigilant Township Committee played a major role in scaling down the urbanization of this 30-acre wooded tract.
Deer Park Application Denied
- Chatham Township
On June 15th, the Board of Adjustment of Chatham Township denied the use variances requested by Deer Park, L.L.C, to expand its offices and parking lot at 700 Shunpike Road. The Board found that the intensification of use in a residential zone was not warranted, despite Deer Park's promise to grant a conservation easement and adhere to the township's strict environmental codes when expanding the parking lot.
The medical technology business is located in a residential zone and has been permitted to operate there thanks to a conditional use variance given to former tenant Transworld Radio, a non-profit institution. The Board of Adjustment had ruled in 1990 that the office space on the property should consist of only the current office building, and not the two former residences on the property. In addition, the Board had limited the number of employees that use the parking lot to 65. In its most recent application, Deer Park asked to renovate the residences as office space, and to double the number of employees and parking spaces.
Oak Knoll School Seeks to Change Zoning for Green Village Road Fields
-
Chatham Twp.
On April 27, representatives of the Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in Summit asked the Township Committee about the possibility of changing the zoning for its 11-acre property off Green Village Road. Most of the land is zoned residential, with 5 acres zoned PI-2 commercial. Oak Knoll's attorney John W. Cooper of Cooper, Rose and English of Summit, said that recreation fields were a permitted conditional use in the residential zone, but not in the PI-2 zone.
Committeewoman Abigail Fair said that if recreation fields are not permitted in a PI-1 zone, it was an oversight in the recent revisions to the zoning in the master plan. The Township Committee told Oak Knoll that the issue would best be resolved by the Planning Board.
This rezoning discussion marks a turnaround from March, when the school announced it was giving up its plan to build athletic fields on the property and would sell the land. School officials had said then that there were too many building restrictions. The school had discussed with Chatham Township problems with traffic, noise pollution and storm water runoff.
Not only are Oak Knoll's athletic field plans rolling ahead again, it is now reportedly trying to acquire an adjoining residential lot of about 1.5 acres to bring the total sports complex area to 13 acres. The school intends to build a parking lot, and four athletic fields, two for softball, one for field hockey and one for soccer. An all-weather track would surround the soccer field.
Chatham Township Committee Debates Buying Wetlands as Open Space
On April 27, The Chatham Township Committee debated the merits of using the open space tax fund to purchase wetlands. The issue is whether the building restrictions in the NJ Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act would preserve wetlands as permanent open space even while the acreage is held by a private landowner.
Deputy Mayor Susan Hoag raised the issue in relation to prioritizing the properties up for acquisition by the township's open space fund. Mayor L. Thomas Patterson and Committeeman Fred Pocci voiced concern over buying wetlands that are "not developable."
Committeewoman Abigail Fair asserted that owners of wetlands properties do circumvent wetlands protections. She said, "a house is going up in Green Village on exceptional value wetlands, because the owner appealed."
Hoag added that buying wetlands is an efficient use of tax payers money, because they are priced more cheaply than non-wetlands.
Hoag added that buying wetlands is an efficient use of tax payers money, because they are priced more cheaply than non-wetlands.
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