Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 16, 2011 Franklin Lakes Surgical center plan gains planning board’s approval by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Planning Board has approved the site plan and several variances and waivers for the construction of a 15,400 square foot, two-level medical office and ambulatory surgical center building on two lots at the end of Tice Road. The site is located next to the New York Susquehanna & Western Railway tracks in the central business district. Tice Road Properties, LLC, the applicant and owner of the subject property, plans to consolidate the two lots into one and construct a commercial building and a parking area on the resulting lot. The medical surgical center would have general access from Tice Road and Pulis Avenue. Emergency vehicles would also have access from Franklin Avenue. In 2006, the planning board recommended a zone change for these two lots from I-2 industrial to RB retail business. The borough council approved that zone change in 2010. The planning board’s approval includes nine variances from the zoning code, most of which were necessitated by the configuration of the property. Those variances include reductions in some the required setbacks, the location of one parking space within 10 feet of the front lot line on Tice Road, 88 parking spaces where 103 are required, 9 by 18 foot parking spaces where 10 by 20 spaces are required, parking within the front yard setback, and several reduced buffer areas. The approval also includes several conditions. The applicant must comply with all state requirements for the construction and operation of a surgical center, must install grass paver blocks in the emergency access area to discourage motorists from attempting to use it as a shortcut, and must provide a hold harmless agreement to the borough regarding the drainage on the site. The applicant will be required to return to the board for review and approval if a surgical center tenant cannot be found, to consider converting the septic area on the site into an additional parking area if sewers are constructed in the business district, and for signage approval once a tenant is located. The applicant also agreed to ask the adjacent commercial property owner to permit grass pavers on that property along a part of the emergency access area. The planning board has been holding a public hearing on the plan since February. The hearing began with an objection raised by the adjacent commercial neighbor who was concerned that patients coming to the surgical center would use his property for parking, or as a pass through to get to the surgical center. That objection led to a dispute between the neighbor’s attorney and the board’s attorney and chairman, and resulted in the filing of a lawsuit against the board, which is still pending in Superior Court, and the decision of the board’s attorney, chairman, and a board member to recuse themselves from the hearing. Once the public hearing officially began, testimony was heard from the applicant, an architect, engineer, surgical center expert, traffic expert, and professional planner. Ultimately, the plan was revised to provide a wall, fence, and landscaping buffer to the adjacent commercial neighbor; reduce the size of the proposed building; and increase the size of the buffer areas, especially the buffer near the adjacent neighbor. The width of the building was reduced by three feet, which decreased its size from 15,900 square feet to 15,400 square feet, the lot coverage was reduced from 70 percent to 69.6 percent, and the building coverage was reduced from 15 percent to 14.84 percent. In addition, the location of the building was moved by a foot so several buffer areas could be increased in order to reduce the size of the variances for those buffers. According to the approved plan, the building will have two levels because of the slope of the property. The lower level will contain the ambulatory surgical center, which will contain four operating rooms for medical surgery services, such as urology, gastroenterology, podiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, pain management, and plastic surgery, which do not require overnight hospital stays. The upper level will contain medical office space. Both levels would, however, have access from the grade level. There will be parking for 88 vehicles, including 11 handicapped parking spaces. This total is less than the 103 spaces required by the borough’s zoning code, but 15 more than required for this type of facility, according to the applicant’s surgical center expert. Franklin Lakes voters have officially endorsed the three Republican candidates who ran unopposed for seats on the borough council. Incumbent Council Members Paulette Ramsey and Charles Kahwaty received 1,025 ballots and 1,063, respectively. Joseph Kelly, who was nominated to the council seat left vacant by Councilman Michael Friscia, received 1,072 votes. Ramsey has won her sixth term. She has been a council member since she was appointed in 1995. Ramsey was elected to her first three-year term in 1996. She is council Voters endorse GOP candidates president and chair of the Public Safety Committee. Kahwaty was elected to the unexpired term of Mayor Frank Bivona, which will end in December 2012. Kahwaty was chosen by the council in February to fill the vacancy on the council. Kelly is a former employee of IBM who has a BS in mathematics from Fordham University and MBA in finance from Wagner University. He has taught math and science at the high school level. He is now the district director for a free income tax program for indigent individuals in Paterson, Clifton, and Passaic.