Mahwah June 15, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Notice issue continues to plague development plan by Frank J. McMahon The issue of providing a proper notice to all Mahwah residents who might be affected by the construction of a single-family home in an area off Midvale Mountain Road has delayed the public hearing until July 20. Philip and Julia Filippone’s application, which is being heard by the zoning board of adjustment, involves a use variance to build the proposed home. The applicants want to develop their 3.4-acre landlocked property in a wooded area west of the Ramapo River and Ramapo Valley Road near the Oakland border. The Filippones must work with the township’s tax assessor to determine all the properties that are within 200 feet of Midvale Mountain Road, a private road that is not maintained by the township, and those property owners within 200 feet of the Filippone property and the adjacent property owned by their neighbor James Venusti. The public hearing was postponed when Robert Zisgen, the attorney for Venusti; and Daniel Steinhagen, the attorney for Karl Kaplan who lives on Fox River Crossing, another private road that intersects with Midvale Mountain Road, objected to the public notice the Filippones sent to the list of property owners provided by the township’s tax assessor. They claimed the list did not include property owners who live on Midvale Mountain Road. Matthew Fox, a professional engineer hired by the Filippones, explained to the board that his associate tried to identify property owners within 200 feet of Midvale Mountain Road, but the tax assessor’s computer requires block and lot numbers in order to identify property owners, and that road does not have a block and lot number. He emphasized, however, that every effort was made to identify and notice them, and lots well in excess of 200 feet of the Filippone and Venusti properties were noticed. Zisgen and Steinhagen also had objections about the correctness of the information provided in the notice. Zisgen argued that the notice should be written in a common sense manner so the general public can understand what is being proposed on the Filippone property. The Filippones sought a variance from the zoning board in 2009 to permit the construction of a single-family dwelling on their property with a driveway that extends across a court-approved easement over their neighbor’s property to Midvale Mountain Road. The public hearing of the Filippone application had been ongoing for 11 months when it was terminated in March 2010 because the zoning board decided it did not have the jurisdiction to continue hearing the case because proper notice was not sent to all the nearby residents as required by state law. The board determined, however, that the notice was not deficient in its information. The Filippones filed a lawsuit against the Mahwah Board of Adjustment in April 2010. In November of 2010, Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte ruled that the Filippones’ notice was neither sufficient to give the public a reasonably accurate description of the proposed use of their property, (continued on page 21)