November 27, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 7 Franklin Lakes Board will hear golf course rezoning plan by Frank J. McMahon This week (Nov. 25) and on Dec. 4, the Franklin Lakes Planning Board will dis- cuss the rezoning of the High Mountain Golf Course to a planned residential devel- opment zoning district. The board will also discuss the amendment to the borough’s master plan that would permit the rezon- ing effort. Franklin Lakes Mayor Frank Bivona hosted a Meet the Mayor session on Oct. 29 at borough hall and he opened the dis- cussion with an update on the recently reported proposal for development of the golf course. The proposed plan to build 275 homes on that property has prompted many questions from local residents, some of whom have placed several full page advertisements in the local newspaper urging people to attend these meetings and to voice their opinions. Bivona explained that no final agree- ments have yet been reached, but the matter has been sent to the planning board for its review and recommendation. Referring to the full page ads, Bivona said that, while he would personally like to keep the prop- erty as a golf course, the suggestion that the borough buy the property is unrealistic because the cost of buying the golf course would be more than $40 million. Bivona announced the tentative agree- ment with the developer, Toll Brothers, Inc. of Horsham, Pennsylvania, and he described a residential mix of 60 single- family detached homes on half-acre lots, 160 carriage homes with garages, and 55 affordable housing units without garages, that have been tentatively planned for con- struction. The mayor advised that the plan to develop the 131-acre site has been the subject of discussion between borough officials and the contract purchaser of the property since March of 2012 when the sale of the golf course was made public by the current owners. The Galenkamp Brothers Partnership and High Mountain Club, Inc., which includes about 75 shareholders, some of whom are members of the McBride family, are the current owners of the property. The lease of the property for use as a golf course will not expire until the end of the 2014 golf season. The council has considered a draft ordi- nance to rezone the property to conform to the tentative plan and that ordinance has been referred to the planning board for review and recommendations before it is returned to the governing body for a public hearing and consideration for adoption. If the council adopts the ordinance, the developer would appear before the plan- ning board for site plan approval and a public hearing that could extend over sev- eral meetings. All the council and planning board meetings will be open to the public. According to Bivona, the perimeter of the site is expected to contain single- family residences comparable to the exist- ing single-family residences in the borough and Wyckoff that are adjacent to the golf course. The “carriage homes” would be clustered in the interior area of the site with the affordable housing units nearer to the borough’s nature preserve. While the development is expected to produce about 120 school children, Bivona emphasized there would be no need for another school building because the enroll- ment in the schools is expected to decline over the next few years. Bivona said the plan does not include the preservation of any land for the future need of a firehouse or any ball fields, although the borough may receive some money for the mainte- nance of the nature preserve. The sale of the golf course was announced in a March 2012 letter from the club president, David McBride, to all members of the High Mountain Golf Club. In that letter, he advised that the owners of the golf course had been working jointly to study the extent to which the necessary governmental approvals could be obtained so the property, which is zoned for residen- tial use, could be developed once the lease with the golf club expires next year. (continued on page 12)