Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 23, 2011 Wyckoff Aldo’s planning board hearing set for next month by John Koster On Dec. 14, the Wyckoff Planning Board will continue its hearing of Aldo Cascio’s proposal to vacate his restaurant’s current location on Franklin Avenue and combine his businesses, Aldo’s Italian Restaurant and Pane e Vino, at the site of the former Wyckoff Bakery at 640 Wyckoff Avenue. The basement of the proposed new operation would feature a wine tasting room to be called Pane e Vino. The first floor would include a dining area, a wine bar, and a cappuccino bar. The 5,296 square foot floor space Cascio has would occupy would accommodate 170 patrons, who would be able to buy wine at the location or bring their own bottles. Henry McNamara, a former state senator, is the landlord of the properties where Aldo’s and Pane e Vino are currently located, 393 and 397 Franklin Avenue. McNamara is also a part-owner in 630 Wyckoff Avenue and is an investor in two other properties on that roadway. McNamara objects to Cascio’s plans. McNamara’s attorney, John Dorsey, asserts that the application should be heard by the board of adjustment because township code permits only one per building, while the restaurant and retails sales would constitute two uses. Cascio’s attorney Bruce Whitaker contends that the liquor sales constitute an ancillary use to the wine bar and, as such, would not require a variance. Although Casio is the sole owner of Pane e Vino and Aldo’s, he previously co-owned Pane e Vino with the former senator’s sons, Henry and Patrick. Until recently, the former senator had also been an investor in the Brick House, a restaurant Cascio also owns and manages. Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox submitted a letter questioning the lack of parking for the new facility. The present operation has no dedicated parking spaces, and plans for the new operation show 19 spaces. The zoning regulations would require 57 spaces unless a variance is granted. “A deficiency of 38 spaces is significant,” Fox’s letter states. “Although there is street parking in the immediate (continued on page 19) The Wyckoff Township Committee last week introduced an ordinance to purchase the 5.1-acre Russell Farms property for recreational space with a mix of Bergen County Open Space and local funds. The introduction of the ordinance followed voters’ Nov. 8 approval of the continued policy of setting aside a half-cent of each $100 of assessed value for Wyckoff’s open space fund. That fund, inaugurated in 2006, has amassed $1,204,000 since that time, and township committee members saw the strong approval of the continued Ordinance to purchase Russell Farms introduced tax -- the continuation was approved by a margin of 3-1 -as an endorsement to proceed with plans to acquire more open space in Wyckoff. The Bergen County Open Trust Fund approved a grant for $1,856,000 in April of 2011. Wyckoff also has $37,000 set aside in the township’s separate capital improvement fund. Comprehensively, these funds should cover the $3.1 million estimated price of the land. Former mayor Rudy Boonstra said last week, however, that no purchase would be consummated until Wyckoff had in hand a letter from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection confirming that all pesticides have been removed from the soil at Russell Farms. Former Township Committeeman David Connolly had called the pesticide contamination “the 600-pound gorilla in the room” when Wyckoff was considering the purchase. Russell Farms had been a working farm and orchard until the owners sold the land to Barrister Construction as a potential building site. The discovery of pesticide contamination blocked residential construction on the site and introduced the possibility to acquire the block of land at the intersection of Sicomac Avenue and Russell Avenue as a public park or recreational site. Democratic Township Committeeman Brian Scanlan was not at the meeting when the four Republican township committeemen adopted the ordinance, but Scanlan joined them in approving the purchase. “When I first started working for the recreation of our Open Space Trust Fund in April 2006, we had three sites in mind: Deep Voll Ravine, Russell Farms, and Maple Lake,” Scanlan said last week. “We are acquiring Russell Farms and are in discussion with the owners of Maple Lake. That’s real progress.” J. KOSTER