Franklin Lakes February 1, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 9 Colonial Road affordable housing plan hits snag by Frank J. McMahon A decision on the amended site plan for the affordable housing complex slated for Colonial Road in Franklin Lakes has been delayed until officials determine if the plan complies with the original court-endorsed settlement agreement of a 2001 builder’s remedy lawsuit. The 14-acre site is located just east of the New York Susquehanna & Western Railway tracks and Route 287 and just north of the access ramps to Routes 287 and 208. The planning board has been hearing testimony by the applicant, GS Realty Corporation, a subsidiary of the Amboy Bank, on amendments proposed to the site plan the board approved in December 2009 as a result of then-new state legislation. That legislation permitted age-restricted housing sites to be marketed as non-age restricted units because of the depressed housing market. The amended site plan the board approved in 2009 shortened one of the buildings by 25 percent and provided on-grade parking in the area that previously occupied part of the building. In addition, there were to be 87 units instead of 84. That total included 69 market rate units and 18 affordable housing units. Late last year, GS Realty returned to the board with an amended site plan that called for the subdivision of the property into two lots with the affordable housing units in a building on one lot and market rate units in a building on the other. However, the board was informed at the most recent public hearing that the proposal to subdivide the property had been withdrawn. Toward the end of the public hearing, Franklin Lakes Mayor Frank Bivona, who also sits on the planning board, voiced his concern that since this project, under a different name, was part of a settlement agreement of a builder’s remedy lawsuit that resulted from a fairness hearing held in Superior Court, he has been advised that this new plan needs the approval of the borough’s mayor and council, and may have to go back to court for another fairness hearing. Stephen Sinisi, the attorney for GS Realty, disagreed with the mayor. Sinisi said that, if a review by the mayor and council were needed, it would be for an entirely different issue that would deal with an entirely different set of facts that are not related to the land use law. “This board has a distinct function to perform as the planning board,” Sinisi told the mayor and the board. “I believe, as the conversion legislation carefully states, it belongs here, not somewhere else, and you are the approving board. Here is where this board looks at the conversion legislation and applies the law to determine if the minor revisions to the site plan should or should not be approved.” Bivona disagreed, saying the settlement agreement speaks about parking, setbacks, sewage, and “all kinds of things” the board discussed during the public hearing. “The borough and the applicants spent a lot of time before a judge concerning many aspects of this project right down to the fine details,” Bivona told Sinisi, “so I don’t know how you can say it doesn’t apply.” Sinisi responded that he believed it is entirely appropriate for the board to act since the presentation of all the testimony on the plans for the project have been completed and his client is not going forward with the previously proposed subdivision, which would have required variances. The borough’s planning board, however, decided to delay action on the site plan for the affordable housing complex until the board’s attorney, John Spizziri, reviews those settlement agreements with Borough Attorney Richard Lustgarten and submits his opinion to the board this week. During the public hearing on the amended site plan, (continued on page 17)