Zoners consider parking
for planned fitness center
BY LARRY RAMER
Staff Writer
MARLBORO — The attorney and several witnesses representing the Elite Fitness and Sports Center underwent questioning about a change in Elite’s site plan and the number of participants expected to use the planned indoor hockey and soccer facilities, as the zoning board continued to consider Elite’s application for a fitness center on Vanderburg Road.
The applicant’s planner, John Ploskonka, told the board at a recent meeting that Elite agreed to reduce the proposed fitness center by 6,200 square feet and add 29 parking spaces, bringing the total number of parking spaces at the facility to 430.
Previously, the applicant had been asked to set aside additional parking in order to provide a "better comfort level" to the board.
Furthermore, Ploskonka testified, the reduction in the size of the facility reduces (by 31 spots) the number of parking spaces that Elite is required to provide.
Zoning Board Chairwoman Sherry Hoffer noticed that the applicant had increased the size of an adjacent proposed hockey facility by 1,400 square feet.
"Why did you also increase the size of the hockey field rather than just reduce the size of the facility?" Hoffer asked.
Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, representing Elite Fitness, said the increase in the size of the hockey area will not bring more people to the area.
Expanding the hockey area will increase its functionality, Ploskonka added.
A principal of the proposed facility, Bret Pessel, testified that adding the extra space to the hockey area would make the rink regulation size and give Elite a competitive edge in attracting leagues to play at the location, compared with similar facilities in Wall Township and Aberdeen Township.
That statement sparked several questions and comments from board members.
Board member Grover Burrows asked how the leagues’ play would be timed to coincide with the health club’s operations.
Pessel replied that the fields would not be used during the health club’s peak times.
Hoffer said that based on her son’s travel soccer experience she thought that 200 children could be watching each league game. She also noted that the applicant had not ruled out using the hockey and soccer areas simultaneously.
"You’ll end up with 200 cars there all the time, along with the cars from the health club facility … how is the parking going to hold that type of attendance?" Hoffer asked.
Board member Stephen Sukel asked whether a Marlboro recreation soccer coach could decide to rent the facility at any time.
The field would be rented only at certain times and only a certain number of people would be allowed on the field simultaneously, Pessel replied. He said he had relied on his soccer coordinator, Frank Rizzi, and a traffic engineer, Frank Miskovich, to design practical plans for the use of the sports fields and health facility simultaneously.
Some of the board’s questions about the number of children who would be on the indoor soccer facility at any one time appeared to be answered when Rizzi testified toward the end of the meeting.
The leagues would only take place on Saturdays, Rizzi said. Each Saturday, a maximum of 65 to 75 children would be coming and going each hour, he testified. During the week, groups of one to five children would train from 3-9 p.m., Rizzi explained.
The children who would be using the hockey and soccer facilities would not require a significant amount of parking, Sonnenblick told the News Transcript, since many of the children using the sports facilities would be dropped off and picked up. In addition, many of their parents would car pool, the attorney added.
Adrienne Spota, who lives on Vanderburg Road, said there were two automobile accidents in the last year that took place near her house. In the first accident, a pick-up truck came diagonally though her yard and hit her fence and mailbox, she said. The truck came to a stop after going through her neighbor’s garage. she said. In the second accident, a car knocked over her mailbox and just missed hitting her fence, she told the board.
The number of cars that would be generated by the Elite Fitness application would increase the rate and severity of accidents on Vanderburg Road, Spota said.
"If there were oncoming cars when the accidents took place, there would have been casualties," Spota said.
Elite Fitness is seeking a use variance from the zoning board to permit construction of the proposed facility, which is not a permitted use in the zone for which it is proposed.