Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 3, 2013 Franklin Lakes Colonial Road affordable housing approved again by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Planning Board has again approved a site plan for the borough’s second affordable housing site, which is located on a 14-acre property on Colonial Road. The property 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. This approval, the fifth time the board has approved a site plan for this property, permits a grading change to allow a proposed sewer line along Colonial Road to be raised by one-and-a-half feet to align with the new sewer line being installed on Franklin Avenue by the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority. The grading change will permit a gravity flow in that sewer line and avoid the need for a second pumping station at the site. The plan also contains an additional retaining wall along the rear of the property and an extension to the Americans with Disabilities Act ramp to provide rest stops. The site plan was amended as a result of a recent agreement between the borough and GS Realty Corporation, a subsidiary of the Amboy Bank, which owns the property, to settle a lawsuit filed by the realty firm against the planning board last July. The suit claimed that the conditions the board placed on its last approval in March 2012 were arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. That lawsuit challenged the board’s conditions that certain issues must be resolved by the borough’s mayor and council because they were beyond the board’s jurisdiction. Those issues included the sequence and timing of the affordable and market rate units, the installation of emer- gency generators in both buildings, the obligation of GS Realty to pay $300,000 to the borough’s affordable trust fund as required by prior approvals, the installation of sanitary sewers, and the re-capture of costs by GS Realty upon connection by property owners along the line of installation. Under that settlement agreement, the site will still have two buildings, one of which will contain 64 market-rate units. The other building will have 23 units, five of which will be open market non-deed restricted units and 18 that will be deed restricted affordable housing units for sale or rent at the option of GS Realty. The agreement also requires GS Realty to install emergency backup generators in both buildings for heat, lighting, and elevators, but not for individual units or air conditioning. The borough agreed to permit construction phasing of the affordable units and the open market units in compliance to the borough code and the state’s administrative code. That phasing will apply to the overall project and not to individual buildings. Under this settlement, GS Realty also agreed to pay $150,000 into the borough’s affordable housing trust fund within 60 days instead of the $300,000 required in the original affordable housing court endorsed settlement. GS Realty will also assume responsibility for the cost of installing a sewer line along Colonial Road to be connected to the one now being installed on Franklin Avenue by the NBCUA. The borough agreed to adopt an ordinance providing that any entity or individual connecting to that sewer line must pay a share of its construction cost to GS Realty. The borough agreed to allow the permitting of improvements that must be installed to preserve prior approvals or permits issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection or any other governmental agency with jurisdiction. The borough also agreed not to object to the subdivision of the property with one building on each subdivided lot provided the subdivision is not permitted until construction has been completed on both properties and certificates of occupancy have been issued. This site has a long history of planning board review and approval. A two-building site plan was originally approved in December 2003 under the duress of a court endorsed settlement of an affordable housing “builder’s remedy” lawsuit. That suit was filed by University Heights, the developer of the Old Mill Road affordable housing complex, now called Mill Pond, which was joined by Colonial Road Associates, the original owner and potential developer of this site. That plan was amended in June 2004. Kara Homes purchased the Colonial Road property, but went bankrupt and the site is now owned by the Amboy Bank. That plan was amended in December 2009 to allow GS Realty to market the age-restricted housing units that were approved for the site as non-age restricted units in accordance with legislation enacted in July 2009 due to the poor economy and the slump in the housing market. The amended plan still contained two buildings, but one was shortened by 25 percent and on-grade parking was to be provided in the area previously occupied by that part of the building. That plan called for 69 market-rate units and 18 affordable housing units. In March 2012, the board approved a plan that called for the larger building to contain 64 market-rate units and a smaller building with 23 affordable housing units. According to that plan, the larger building will be a three-floor building extending from Colonial Road toward the tracks and Route 287. The smaller building, which will be nearer to Colonial Road, will appear to have three floors, but will have four because units have been planned for the basement level of that building. That plan was approved after several changes, including provisions to allow the fire department to get its ladders to reach the window sills of the upper level units. GS Realty also agreed to install elevators that would accommodate the 24-inch by 84-inch stretchers used by the borough’s emergency services, and to install a full sprinkler system in each building and to locate standpipes in all stairway towers to facilitate access to water from inside the (continued on page 18)