Mahwah June 22, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Edison Road assisted living site plan changed by Frank J. McMahon The attorney and professional engineer for Zoccoli Associates, the owner and prospective developer of an assisted living facility on Edison Road in Mahwah, recently reviewed changes to the development plan with the zoning board of adjustment. The subject property is 4.6-acre parcel located in the GI industrial zone. Attorney Stephen Sinisi addressed a specific concern expressed by board members at the first public meeting on this application. He told the board his client would agree to a condition of approval that would require Zoccoli Associates to obtain a private ambulance service to transport its residents to and from the facility, except for 911 calls, in order to avoid using the township’s volunteer ambulance corps. He asked, however, to reserve the right to review that condition every few years in case volunteerism increases or other conditions change. Professional engineer James Brown reviewed the changes he had made to the plans. Those changes include updates to the drainage calculations, an increase in the curb width of the driveways, a change in the radius at the entrance to the site, a reduction in the double row of parking spaces in front of the building from eight to seven that would result in 51 parking spaces and one truck space, alignment of the two-way travel lane under the covered entrance at the front of the building on Edison Road, and plans to remove 107 trees, which would be replaced by 28 trees. Sinisi said his client would agree to contribute the cost of installing sidewalks at the site to the township’s sidewalk bank in return for a waiver not to be required to provide sidewalks. In addition, Sinisi explained several other changes to the fire lane around the building and the radii for fire truck use all around the building. The specific location for truck parking in the rear of the building was left open. The board was in favor of having it near the kitchen area to protect neighbors from night deliveries. Brown agreed to use whatever evergreen trees the township prefers, and Sinisi agreed to investigate why there is a 15-foot sanitary sewer easement across the property and to ask the township to vacate that easement in which no pipe was ever installed. In response to Nadine Legarde, a resident who owns a lot adjacent to the Zoccoli property, Brown promised to provide a dense double row of trees to buffer her property from the parking lot. When Township Engineer Michael Kelly recommended a six-foot high solid PCV vinyl fence, Sinisi said his client would be willing to install that fence. Zoccoli Associates is seeking a use variance and several other variances and waivers to build an 86,175 square foot, three-story, 96-room building on the south side of the property and to subdivide the existing 10lot residential portion of the property with frontage on Fairmount Avenue. Zoccoli wants to subdivide them into five lots to form a buffer between the assisted living facility and the residential area on the north side of Fairmount. In 2005, Zoccoli sought the zoning board’s approval to build a self storage facility on the part of the property that was zoned for industrial use, but faced a lot of opposition from residents who hired an attorney to represent them. That plan was amended in an attempt to appease the neighbors, but they continued to object until an agreement was reached between Zoccoli and the neighbors. That agreement called for the rezoning of a portion of the GI 80 industrial and the residential lots along Fairmount Avenue into five conforming residential lots, and the vacation of a portion of Jefferson Street south of Fairmount Avenue so a road could not be put there for motorists to travel between Edison Road, which is in the industrial zone, and that part of Fairmount Avenue, which is now in the residential zone. Zoccoli’s current application calls for an assisted living facility on the site, but the plan does not identify a particular operator at this time.