Mahwah August 29, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 5 Planners approve subdivision of township property by Frank J. McMahon The subdivision of a 1.6-acre township-owned property on the northeast side of Mahwah Road near Orchid Drive and Sunnyside Road, and about 1,000 feet from Airmount Road, has been approved by the Mahwah Planning Board. The approval will create into two buildable lots, each consisting of 34,141 square feet. Variances for width and frontage deficiencies for both lots were also approved. The township’s zoning ordinance requires a lot width of 90 feet and a 67.5-foot frontage on a public street. One of the subdivided lots will be 62.65 feet wide, while the other lot will be 66.71 feet wide, and each of the subdivided lots will have a 39.29-foot frontage. The property previously was the location of the township’s East Mahwah Tank Field and contained an in-ground water tank that is no longer in use. It was considered an eyesore, and township officials were concerned that children might go on the site to play, which would have been a safety hazard. Plans call for both lots to be sold. In January, the Mahwah Council gave the township’s administration authorization to apply to the planning board for approval to subdivide the property into two building lots and put both lots up for sale once that subdivision was approved. The vacant land has a current value of $566,900 according to the township’s tax records. In July 2008, the township council paid $72,000 to demolish the concrete reservoir with a steel and wooden roof that had been located on the property and was almost a century old. In their report, Maser Consulting, the township’s professional planning company, cautioned that a large foundation with tank outlet pipes on the property could pose a conflict with any new house foundation planned for the site. However, Boswell Engineering, the township’s engineering firm, confirmed that the foundation for the concrete reservoir and steel standpipes have been removed and the township’s water department will remove any additional existing pipes prior to the sale of the property. Mahwah Township Administrator Brian Campion advised that no improvements are required to make the lots saleable. The properties will be sold at auction with a minimum bid sometime this fall. The buyers of the lots would then have to apply to the planning board for site plan and soil moving approvals. The tank field on the site was built sometime after 1912, when artesian wells were drilled in the area of Mahwah Road. The artesian wells and this reservoir and tank served the township for many years starting in the early 1900s when the Cragmere Water Company was founded and the Cragmere section of the township was being developed, as (continued on page 23)