By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
OCEAN TOWNSHIP — The Search Day Program and objectors to its plan to put an addition on its school for the autistic on Wickapecko Drive have reached tentative agreement on a design change to appease the neighbors.
Michael A. Bruno, the Middletown lawyer representing the Search Day School, told the Zoning Board of Adjustment at its meeting on July 10 that the school would lower the height of the wall on the south side of the proposed new building and move more of the planned landscaping there as desired by two couples who have been fighting the addition.
As a result, he said, the two sides have reached "agreement in principle" on the design and that the project can move forward without further delay from the objectors.
Paul G. Jemus, the Caldwell lawyer representing the two couples who have objected to the addition, said Steven J. Kaplan and his wife were satisfied with the plan with the changes and he was waiting to hear back from the Taylors, the other objecting couple, who were in California, but that an agreement in principle had indeed been reached.
He said, however, he was reserving the right to continue to present his case against the addition if the Search Day Program comes back with the old plan.
Katherine Solana, director of the Search Day School, said afterward she hoped this would be the end of the wrangling and that the school could get on with building the addition.
"It’s looking more favorable than it has over the last couple of years," she said. "I think it looks very positive. People are smiling."
"We’re doing everything to accommodate the objectors," she added. "We really just want to have our little school with all our students in one place."
Jemus also said afterward that he hoped the proposed changes would lead to a solution.
"We’re very pleased that we were able to have meaningful discussions with the applicant," he said. "But be mindful it’s a board decision. I don’t try to read their minds."
Bruno explained to the board that under the agreement, the height of the wall on the south side of the addition, originally planned as 27 to 30 feet high, which the two couples strenuously opposed, would be scaled down closer to 10 feet high, a reduction of 17 to 19 feet, and the overall height, at the tallest point, originally planned as 35 feet, would now be lowered to 24 feet. He said this would be accomplished by moving the large multi-purpose room from the south side to the middle.
Bruno also said a basement mechanical room would be scaled back from 4,000 square feet to 2,607 square feet, and the mezzanine would be reduced by one-half in size to 60 by 8 feet, for just under 500 square feet, from the 1,000 square feet originally proposed, to assure there would be no human occupancy.
In addition, he said, the school would move some of the plants proposed for other parts of the grounds to the south side to augment the landscaping planned there.
At the most recent previous hearing on the Search Day plan in May, an architect testifying for the two couples who opposed the addition said it was oversized for the site and contained "hidden spaces" that might be used for more classrooms in the future. He questioned the amount of space in both the basement and the mezzanine and said the latter could be turned into two classrooms down the road, even if that isn’t the intent of the current school administration.
Bruno said he hoped the board would find the school’s plan acceptable now. He stressed the site plan hadn’t changed — only the building’s height elevation has changed.
"I think this is a fine plan," he said. "We’re trying to address the concerns we have had."
Jemus similarly noted that the board was free to make a determination on whether the amended plan was acceptable and said his clients were "standing back" to allow the school to file it.
Warren Goode, chairman of the board, said the board would need to have its professionals — Jim Higgins, a planner, and William Fitzgerald, an engineer — take a look at the revised plan but that he didn’t see any "downside" to it. He noted the south wall no longer was so imposing.
Higgins and Fitzgerald said they saw nothing in the new plan that couldn’t be resolved.
Another board member asked if the school planned to make any change in the proposed traffic pattern, to which the two couples also had objected.
"They have agreed to these changes," Bruno replied. "They are going to remove their objection."
Mark Steinberg, the board’s attorney, asked Jemus if he had any other objections.
Jemus said his clients were prepared to go along with the revised plan and withdraw their objections. He said they would not proceed further in presenting their case against the addition.
The application was continued until the board’s regular meeting on Sept. 11 when comments from the public will be heard and the board may finally cast its vote.
The Search Day School, which serves autistic children and young adults, has been seeking approval to build a $1.7 million 15,507-square-foot one-story addition next to the present two-story school building, which is a 101-year old mansion. It needs a bulk variance because the school grounds are just under 5 acres when 10 acres are required, a variance because it’s a conditional use in the zone and a variance for the number of parking spaces.
The school currently has 45 students at the Wickapecko Drive facility and another 18 at a satellite on West Park Avenue that it wants to bring over to Wickapecko Drive when the addition is built, for a total of 63 there.
Search Day also wants approval to increase enrollment at the Wickapecko Drive school by another 22 students to a maximum of 85.