Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • June 2, 2010 Mahwah Old assessment map may hold key to fowl issue by Frank J. McMahon An old property assessment map that was brought to the attention of the Mahwah Zoning Board of Adjustment by board member William Dator may hold the key to determining if chickens, meaning roosters and hens, and chicken coops existed on a Lakeview Drive lot in the Stag Hill area prior to creation of the township’s zoning code. The lot is owned by Rommel Mondejar and is occupied by his tenant, Jonathan DeMarino, who allegedly has hundreds of roosters and hens in multiple coops, some of which are currently within five feet of their property line. The township’s property maintenance officials claim that is a violation of the zoning ordinance, but attorney George Cotz, who represents Mondejar and DeMarino, claims the township’s ordinance does not apply to his clients because their use of the property for chickens and coops predates the zoning ordinance, which was adopted in 1946. Mondejar and DeMarino had previously been in municipal court on several occasions in response to summonses for violating township ordinances, including the operation of a home occupancy business contrary to a township ordinance, the outside sale of goods and poultry contrary to a township ordinance, and using residential property for an agricultural purpose. They have also received summonses for having chicken coops too close to their property line. The summonses had been issued to them by the township’s previous property maintenance officer, John Lane, and by Thomas Mulvey, the township’s current zoning and property maintenance inspector, in response to complaints by neighbors of the property. After the court hearings were adjourned several times at Cotz’s request, Municipal Court Judge Anthony Gianni agreed to allow Cotz to apply to the zoning board for an interpretation of the township’s zoning ordinance to learn when the zoning ordinance requiring more than a five-foot setback from the property line became effective, and if the use of the property by Mondejar and DeMarino predates that effective date. All the court cases are being held in abeyance pending the zoning board’s decision on this case. At the last meeting of the zoning board, Dator advised Mondejar, DeMarino, Cotz, and his peers on the board that, according to his old property tax assessment map, the house on Mondejar’s lot did not exist in 1946 when the township’s zoning ordinance was adopted. Dator claimed that the larger piece of property that included Mondejar’s lot was not subdivided until 1950. Based on that information, Dator recommended that the board close the public hearing on the application by Mondejar and DeMarino, and find on the record that there were no chickens on that property in 1946. Cotz disagreed that the property was not subdivided before 1946, but Zoning Board Attorney Ben Cascio explained there were no property lines, so the coops could not be more than five feet from them. Cotz agreed he could not say that the coops were more than five feet from the property lines prior to the adoption of the zoning ordinance, but he maintained that chickens were kept on the property well before 1946 and said that coops were there before World War I. Cotz explained, for instance, that there was a coop there before 1946 and it belonged to a neighbor named Doris Mann. He said she would testify to that. Cascio explained that would only give his clients the right to have one coop on the property. Cotz responded, “You might be correct, but I am not conceding that point.” During the public portion of the meeting, Elizabeth DeGroat, a 20-year resident of Lakeview Drive, testified there have always been chickens on Mondejar and DeMarino’s property, and they are not a nuisance as some people would have the zoning board believe. She said they are educational for the children in the area. Before the public hearing was carried to the June 16 meeting of the board, Chairman George Cimis asked DeMarino about the context of a You Tube video entitled “Ramapo Mountain Game Farm” in which DeMarino appears with a man who was looking at his chickens and roosters and discussing a dollar value for his roosters. 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