GREAT SWAMP WATERSHED ASSOCIATION Winter 2001 |
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Swamp Watch: The Year 2000 in Review Editor's note: "Swamp Watch" covers important land-development issues in each of the ten towns of the watershed: Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Chatham Township, Harding, Long Hill, Madison, Mendham Borough and Township, Morris Township and Morristown. If you do not see your town listed here, it's because we do not have someone to cover that town, not because there are no development issues occurring. If you are interested in covering your town for Across the Watershed, please call Julia Somers at 973.966.1900. Swamp Watch is edited by Kathy Abbott. Bernards Township The Township's approval of a residential project on the steeply sloped site of the former Fellowship Deaconry nursing home on Old Army Road is a ruling in favor of the watershed ecology. Seven single-family homes will soon take the place of the buildings on the 24-acre property. Impervious coverage on the site will drop from the current 12.9 percent to 7.7 percent, according to the project engineer. In 1999 the township had ruled against a proposal for an 83-bed nursing home on the site, a use that would have intensified impervious coverage and traffic. The developer of the seven approved residences, Menza and Beisel Homes of Bernardsville, addressed water-flow issues by means of three discharge points and construction of dry wells on the lots. The plan also includes conservation easements in several rear yards, in an effort to preserve trees. Neighborhood residents, as well as GSWA's Julia Somers, praised the plan. As part of a settlement agreement with the Board of Trustees of Ridge Oak, the Township Committee voted in November to rezone the proposed Ridge Oak assisted-living facility site in the center of Basking Ridge from residential to a newly created SH1 zone, which would allow a scaled-down Ridge Oak project. In return, Ridge Oak will dismiss its federal lawsuits against the township alleging discrimination against the handicapped. An assisted-living facility is not a permitted use within the new SH1 zone, but Ridge Oak agreed to drop a court-approved plan for a 54,620-square-foot, 66-bed assisted living facility, and now plans to construct rent-subsidized housing for 48 seniors, with a communal eating facility. Any new structure on the SH1 site would be limited to 34,500 square feet. In addition, the existing Ridge Oak Senior Housing complex will be able to expand by 12 units by replacing existing structures. Although residents expressed concern that the new plan will create more serious problems than the earlier plan, the mayor deferred all questions about street widening, traffic impact and other concerns until Ridge Oak presents a formal plan to the Planning Board. - Ann Parsekian Bernardsville A tentative settlement was reached in November between the borough and resident Alfred C. Eckert in their dispute that began last February when Eckert cut down 36 trees of four-inch diameter or greater without a permit. Under the agreement, Eckert will drop his Superior Court case against the borough, which challenged the constitutionality of the borough's tree-cutting ordinance, and the borough will drop its municipal court case against Eckert charging violation of the ordinance, which carries a $1000 fine. Eckert had indicated his intention in the Superior Court Case to assert that "the right to harvest and plant on one's own property is a basic right in the US, inherent, in fact, in the ownership of property itself." Bernardsville mayor Hugh Fenwick and other town
officials met on Eckert's estate to discuss his proposal to restore nine barren acres
where Eckert removed trees without a permit. Eckert flew in a landscape architect from
England to present the officials with plans to create a "proper British Chatham The site of the new Kessler assisted-living facility on Southern Boulevard turned from an environmental highlight in 1999 into an environmental headache in 2000. In 1999, the Township approved the site plan for the 95-apartment facility and hailed it as the first project to conform to the new "no net increase in storm water runoff" ordinance. But by late 2000, township officials had become concerned that the site's former owners, who operated the Hickory Tree Garage there, had not yet begun to clean up groundwater pollution, as mandated by the NJDEP. The carcinogenic petrochemicals MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) and benzene have been seeping into the shallow groundwater and migrating away from the construction site. A plume of MTBE now extends at least as far as a monitoring well behind the Chatham Hill Apartments. If MTBE is migrating even farther, it enters the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, placing at potential risk plants, wildlife and visitors - as well as public drinking water. The cleanup, scheduled to begin in early 2001 and take one to two years, involves pumping up the polluted groundwater, cleaning it, and recharging it into the ground. Another proposal in difficulty is Sterling Properties' plan to build 56 units on the 30 acres known as the Tublitz estate, near the intersection of Shunpike and Green Village Roads. In December, the engineer for Sterling Properties said it would comply with the township's stormwater management rules and DEP regulations, but runoff from neighboring properties is presenting major obstacles. An adjacent development on Rachel Avenue in Madison has a drainage system that dumps water onto the Sterling Properties site via a cement headwall. In addition, sheets of rainwater flow from the Madison Golf Club onto the lower-lying Sterling tract. Plus, an earthen dam that creates a pond on the property will have to be reinforced and classified by the DEP for flooding hazard. Sterling may have to allow for a larger flood storage area. In March, Oak Knoll School of Summit halted plans to build athletic fields on the 13.4 acres it bought along Green Village Road, and then in July presented new plans. In contention was use of the playing fields for Chatham residents, and adherence to the township's "no net increase" requirements, DEP wetlands regulations, and traffic and noise. The school's engineer said the new plans will negatively impact a small area of wetlands in the center of the complex, but that he was "positive" the DEP would grant permits to build. The strongest ruling in favor of the Refuge came in June, when the Board of Adjustment denied a request by Deer Park, L.L.C., to expand its offices and parking lot at 700 Shunpike Road. The Board ruled 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. The medical technology business operates in a residential zone thanks to a conditional use variance given to former tenant Transworld Radio, a non-profit institution. Punctuating this year of mixed land use news, Helen Fenske, a founder of the movement to save the Great Swamp from becoming a jetport 40 years ago, moved from Chatham in December to New Hampshire. We will miss her and her contributions to the Second Battle to Save the Great Swamp. - Kathy Abbott Harding Township A Morris Animal Inn (MAI) request to the Board of Adjustment to permit a doubling in size was on hold for much of 2000 while issues surrounding wetlands were debated before NJDEP. The DEP found that an area beyond the stream-encroachment boundary had been filled, and MAI has an approved plan to remove this fill. A large area of wetlands on the site has been reclassified by the DEP to "exceptional value" from "intermediate value." The DEP, however, has taken the position that the reclassification notwithstanding, MAI can "rely" on the previous "intermediate value" for the purpose of this application, a ruling that permits it to continue with its application before the Township Board of Adjustment. MAI has presented a slightly amended application and will pursue approval to double its non-conforming use in a residential neighborhood. Last fall the Darcy School, a private school now located in Madison, announced an agreement to purchase the land on which Hilltop Stables operates, remove the stables and build a school for up to 200 students. Residentially zoned, the property is located on Sand Spring Road, opposite the Morris Animal Inn. Sand Spring Road is a local road (as opposed to a county collector or state road) and not considered appropriate for conditional uses such as schools and churches. While an application is not expected to be heard by the Board of Adjustment until sometime in 2001, opposition from neighbors and others in the Township has already been voiced. - Julia Somers Long Hill Long Hill Township has several state-of-the-art environmental ordinances on the books (designed to meet the standards of the model ordinances of the Ten Towns Great Swamp Watershed Management Committee), but local engineers continued to bring 1950's vintage plans before the boards last year, and citizen action seems to be an essential ingredient for compliance. One of the success stories is an eight-house subdivision of a property in the Great Swamp watershed. The original plans had serious problems with stormwater management, but the applicant agreed to meet with GSWA to modify the plans, ultimately agreeing to meet the "no net increase" requirements, protect steep slopes, and set up significant conservation areas. A second project is proposing to combine several properties, then re-subdivide and add a new road to serve about five new houses. Preliminary indications suggest more 1950's stormwater management. Have they not heard that doing it right saves up to 30 percent of the costs? The Great Swamp Greenhouse proposal to add five new hoop houses under the guise of "temporary" farm structures is still in the courts. Township officials are optimistic that the appellate court will uphold the rejection of such structures in a Holmdel case and that Judge Stanton will follow this precedent when deciding on the hoop houses. Finally, Long Hill adopted a voluntary sewer ban in October, expecting to lift the ban in about a year after a thorough study of inflow and infiltration. Commercial developers opposed the ban and have already suggested an expansion (!) of the existing plant. - Len Hamilton Madison The year 2000 ended with Madison citizens at the forefront of public discussions involving the borough and the environmental impact of several potential threats. In May, a group of citizens formed an organization called Madison Matters. The organization, open to any borough resident, came into existence to provide a counterweight to development pressures. The group formed after a close vote of the Planning Board denied approval for a builder to subdivide a property at 144 Loantaka Way into two non-conforming lots. The property included an historic manor house and large mature trees. Although the vote was a victory for environmental and historical preservation, the closeness of the vote showed that open space elsewhere in the borough is similarly threatened. In order to actively defend open space in the future, Madison Matters will monitor zoning variance applications, planning board cases and other land-use issues both within and outside the watershed. In June, a move by the Borough Council to substantially reduce the power of the Shade Tree Authority (STA) came under significant public scrutiny. A meeting of the Council at which the proposal was discussed was attended by nearly 100 residents, all of whom were surprised and angry about the Council's proposed actions, as well as the mayor's lack of communication to the STA and the public. As a result of this outrage, the Council tabled the original ordinance and called for development of several alternative ordinances. Madison's Shade Tree program has run smoothly and effectively for 16 years, is used as a role model for other towns in the state as they develop their own Shade Tree programs, and has received numerous grants from the state of NJ. As the year closed, the issue remained open as to whether the town should leave the STA as is, form a stronger Shade Tree Commission, or simply change the organization's name. In November, another potential environmental threat spurred residents to help form a regional group called the Southeast Morris League for Strategic Solutions, or SEaMLeSS. The group estimates that five to six million square feet of new office space construction are in process in the southeast Morris County region, including two million planned for the former Exxon site in Florham Park, bordering Madison. The group is concerned with open space, increased auto traffic, increased air traffic to the Morristown Airport, detrimental impact to the Passaic River Great Swamp watersheds, and increased demand for housing and schools. A proposed new off-ramp from Route 24 is of primary concern. SeaMLeSS members include elected officials from six towns, as well as representatives from a number of environmental organizations, including GSWA. The group will be monitoring ongoing development demands and proposals within the Southeast Morris area and will publish a "white paper" in early 2001 outlining specific concerns and potential solutions. - Judy Kroll Mendham Township After several public hearings and extensive work by a Planning Board sub-committee, a new Master Plan for the Township has been approved by the Board. Presentations of the plan to the Township Committee have begun. Chief among the changes are re-zoning to larger lots over a considerable part of the Township. The Board believes this is justified by a groundwater study conducted earlier this year that indicated that no more than about 300 new homes could be supplied with water before wells in parts of the Township would start to run dry. Dry wells were experienced by some homeowners during the drought of summer 1999. Mendham Township is almost wholly dependent on groundwater supply. The Morris Area Girl Scouts Council has announced general plans to build a new camp on its property in Mendham Township adjacent to the Morristown National Historical Park. Issues of deed restrictions and environmental and historic impacts have been raised informally as by GSWA, the National Park Service, the Washington Association and a number of other groups. To date, no plans have been presented to the Township. - Julia Somers Morris Township In September, the Board of Adjustment denied the request of South Street Associates to build eight luxury townhouses on a one-acre property in the RA 15 zone, which designation would currently permit three single-family homes. The property is located on the south side of Mt. Kemble Avenue, overlooking the Springbrook Country Club. This site is adjacent to a headwater of Great Brook, and the use proposed was so intense as to leave no space for appropriate stormwater treatment. The application was rigorously opposed by neighboring Springbrook Townhouse residents. While located outside the Great Swamp watershed, the Delbarton School/St. Mary's Abbey property on Western Avenue drew the attention of GSWA representatives throughout the year, as the Township Planning Board discussed whether to permit removal of a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) zone there. The Abbey has said it wants to build a 250-unit CCRC on about 60 acres of its property next to the entrance to Morristown National Historical Park. The Planning Board removed the CCRC designation, but said it would reconsider the issue as part of its Master Plan review, now under way. The Abbey property forms part of a mostly undisturbed large block of land that begins in the Great Swamp watershed and includes the Morristown National Historical Park, Lewis Morris Park, property owned by the Morris County Area Girl Scouts Council, and the Scherman-Hoffman Sanctuaries. This block also extends into the Washington Valley Historic District of the Whippany watershed, where the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority, the Seeing Eye and Morris Township own substantial acreages on the far side of St. Mary's Abbey property. All this land buffers the National Historical Park. The December Planning Board meeting saw the start of an application to build a 100,400 square- foot office building and a 15,000 square-foot childcare center on South Street and Southgate Parkway. Wetland permits have not yet been granted by NJDEP for this project, which is surrounded by forested wetlands in the headwaters of Great Brook, and needs 13 variances from municipal ordinances. Residents have gathered about 100 signatures on a petition opposing the project. It will be heard again in February. - Julia Somers |
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