October 23, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 7 Wyckoff Hawthorne informs township of Vista hearing by John Koster The Hawthorne Board of Adjustment has informed Wyckoff residents that it planned to host a public hear- ing on the Christian Health Care Center’s Vista project as approved by the Wyckoff Board of Adjustment in March. The meeting was scheduled for Monday, Oct. 21. CHCC is seeking a use variance, a variance for height limitation, and a variance to permit off-street parking stalls. If approved and constructed, Vista would include 199 senior living units with 51 units in Hawthorne and 148 in Wyckoff. The total acreage of the CHCC site off Sicomac Avenue in Wyckoff is 79 acres, with 63 acres in Wyckoff and 16 acres in Hawthorne. Wyckoff approved the Vista plan after extended hear- ings that led to some revisions in the plan and a reduction of the size of the project. None of the legal requirements established by the Wyckoff Board of Adjustment may be changed at the Hawthorne hearing. The Wyckoff board’s unanimous March 4 approval included 55 stipulations. One of the key stipulations is that the existing driveway to and from the CHCC and its adjunct Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat will continue to provide access to both operations, and that all deliveries to the CHCC will be made from Sicomac Avenue. Signals will be provided at the entrance on Mountain Avenue and will state “No CHCC deliveries.” The existing access to Merrywood Drive will continue to be used as an emergency access only, and will remain closed and gated to through traffic. Traffic concerns were at the height of the list of neigh- borhood objections to the Vista proposal, which kept hear- ings going for more than a year and led to the planning board’s request for a reduction in the scale of the project and to agreements about the entrance. The application drew opposition from neighbors, who expressed concerns about traffic and drainage. Their input led CHCC to scale down the size of the project by about 25 percent. CHCC suggested that having adults who shop locally and pay taxes through their leases but do not send children to the school system would represent a financial benefit to Wyckoff. The unanimous vote to approve the plan came at the March 4 board meeting after the CHCC met the conditions for reduced size and minimal impact. Some of the key con- ditions included: The applicant agreed to deed restrict the property to pre- vent use of the project for any purpose other than congre- gate care use and to prevent the rental or use of the CHCC property for future uses of the property for a cell tower, satellite, and/or water tower. The minimum resident’s age is 62. All residential cooking appliances will be electric. A condition of the contract for each unit must be that resident is able to self-evacuate from the building. If they are not able to self-evacuate, the CHCC has the ability to have the resident moved to the next stage of care. There will be no increase in storm water runoff to adja- cent properties. Proper drainage measures must be maintained during construction. Proper soil erosion control measures must be maintained during construction. (continued on page 8) Two leash ordinances introduced The Wyckoff Township Committee has introduced two leash ordinances for dogs after a Doberman pinscher running at large attacked a golden retriever in the Russell Farms Community Park. Local sources said the retriever was seriously hurt, but is expected to survive the attack by the Doberman, although the retriever had to go to the animal hospital for treatment. The Wyckoff Township Committee took steps to for- malize the policy that dogs in parks and dogs not on their owners’ properties have to be leased at all times with two ordinances introduced at the Oct. 15 meeting. The ordinance concerning the leashing of dogs and the ordinance concerning dogs in parks and playgrounds were amended last week and had their introduction by unani- mous votes with no public comment. The first ordinance requires that dogs be restrained by a leash not more than 10 feet along any place off their owners’ premises. The second ordinance is more comprehensive. That pro- posal states, in part: “Dogs which are properly and legally licensed and reg- istered may be walked by a person competent to properly manage and control the actions of said dog, only if such a dog is securely confined and controlled by an adequate leash not more than 10 feet long, at the following loca- tions: “The portion of Wyckoff Community Park...which is contained between Wyckoff Avenue and the edge of the parking lot which abuts the recreational fields. Such per- mitted areas shall be inclusive of the parking lot. There (continued on page 9)