April 17. 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 13 Temple seeks variances for subdivided lot by Frank J. McMahon Temple Emanuel of North Jersey has applied to the Franklin Lakes Planning Board for approval of a subdivision of a 15.7-acre property at the corner of Colonial Road and McCoy Road plus three variances. Plans call for the creation of a new, single-family 52,025 square foot lot, and construction of a house on that lot that will be used as a residence for the temple’s rabbi. Attorney Salvatore Alfieri, Professional Engineer and Professional Planner Arthur Elias, and temple representative Terry Sherman appeared before the board and described the temple’s plans. The applicant wants to subdivide the smaller lot from the 14.5-acre parcel that is now under contract and will be sold to the borough for the construction of special needs housing. Sherman provided the board with an overview. The property, which is in the A-40 residential zone, is bordered by the Borough of Oakland, the New York Susquehanna & Western Railway Corporation tracks to the north, and state highway Route 208 to the northeast. Currently, the temple property is comprised of four lots that extend from Colonial Road to the Oakland border. The largest lot that borders Oakland is about nine acres, and there is a small vacant lot adjacent to it that also borders Oakland. Both of those lots contain steep slopes and wetlands The subdivision would transfer 42,941 square feet of property from that larger lot to the small vacant lot on which the single family house would be built. The new dwelling would have a basement and attached garage, a front porch and walkway, a rear-yard deck, and a single access driveway from McCoy Road with a garage access turnaround area. The lot would be served by a new well and septic system with drainage piped to a catch basin on McCoy Road. A three-foot, 10-inch retaining wall would be constructed to limit the amount of disturbance on the site. Three variances from the borough’s steep slope ordinance have been requested, and 66 trees are expected to be removed from the site to permit the construction of the dwelling. According the Boswell Engineering, the borough’s engineering firm, 3,255 cubic yards of excavation would be required to remove part of a knob of dirt on the site to provide a level location for the dwelling. In addition, 580 cubic yards of fill would be required with any excess soil being trucked off the site. Sherman assured the board that the removal of part of that knob of dirt would not create a detrimental noise impact from the railroad tracks or the highway on the homes on McCoy Road because the house to be built there would be larger than the knob of dirt. The planning board scheduled an April 11 field trip to the site and carried the public hearing on the application to the April 17 meeting of the board, at which time the board will consider approval of the subdivision and site plan for the dwelling. The borough has signed a $2 million contract with Temple Emanuel of North Jersey, which is located on High Mountain Road, to purchase the balance of this property owned by the temple. The temple congregation purchased the property about 15 years ago and planned to build a temple on the 15.7acre site. That plan was denied by the zoning board of adjustment after a public hearing that lasted for 31 meetings of the board, but that denial was reversed in Superior Court. A revised plan was ultimately approved by the zoning board, but the temple was never built. The borough was motivated to purchase the site when the state indicated its intention to seize any money that had been in the municipality’s affordable housing trust fund for a period of four years or more (or since 2008), unless that money had been committed for the purposes of constructing affordable housing. The purchase also settled the temple’s objection to the borough’s 2008 housing plan, which did not include this property for affordable housing. The borough now plans to have affordable housing for people with special needs built on the site using the money that had been subject to seizure by the state. According to Franklin Lakes Borough Administrator Gregory Hart, a revised spending plan has been submitted to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and Council on Affordable Housing to permit the expenditure of the money from the affordable housing trust fund to acquire the temple property. The contract is contingent upon the borough’s receipt of authorization from the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing and any other appropriate state agencies for the money to be used for the purchase of this property.