Federal City Road zoning will be examined again.
By: Lea Kahn
The township Planning Board is slated to reconsider a change in zoning for the Assemblies of God office building at 88 Federal City Road when it meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building.
The board, which will meet in the Lower Level Conference Room, also will consider two applications for minor subdivisions on Birchwood Knoll and on Lawn Park Avenue.
Township Council was set to take final action on an amendment to the township’s Land Use Ordinance last month that would have changed the zoning on the 3.75-acre Assemblies of God property from Education Government & Institutions to Professional Office, but questions by neighbors caused the council to hold off until it could be reviewed again by the Planning Board.
Both zones EGI and PO permit office uses. The EGI is geared toward noncommercial or nonprofessional offices. The PO zone permits professional offices, such as medicine, law, finance, social services, accounting, insurance, engineering, architecture, planning and real estate.
Under the Municipal Land Use Law, amendments to the zoning ordinance are introduced by the governing body and then sent to the town’s Planning Board for comment. After the Planning Board offers its comments, the governing body takes final action on the ordinance.
Township Council introduced the ordinance at its Feb. 17 meeting and then sent it to the Planning Board for review. The Planning Board reviewed the proposed zoning change and sent it back to the council for a public hearing and final action at the council’s March 16 meeting.
Neighbors said they were concerned about the traffic impacts that would result from a new development on the property. It was also pointed out that changing the zoning from EGI to PO on the Federal City Road property is an encroachment on a residential zone. Federal City Road is zoned for residential use.
In other business, the Planning Board will consider an application by Joseph J. Ciosek Jr. to consolidate 10 undersized lots on the corner of Birchwood Knoll and Darrah Lane into a 1-acre tract, and then subdivide the parcel into three building lots.
The new building lots would range in size from 11,757 to 16,775 square feet. All would have frontage on Birchwood Knoll. An existing one-story house and detached garage on the property would be demolished to make way for the new houses.
And in a final matter, Ralph Erkoboni Jr. is seeking to consolidate seven adjacent undersized lots five that have frontage on Lawn Park Avenue and two that have frontage on Meriline Avenue.
The 14,700-square-foot lot resulting from that consolidation would be subdivided into two lots one that contains an existing house and a second lot that would be a new building lot. A new house would be built on that lot.
Several variances would be needed for the proposed new building lot for the lot size, the front yard setback and the rear yard setback. The lot that would contain the existing house would contain 8,400 square feet more than the minimum lot size.
The proposed new building lot would contain 6,300 square feet, but the zoning ordinance calls for a minimum lot size of 7,500 square feet. The front yard setback is proposed to be 20 feet, but the zoning ordinance requires 30 feet. The rear yard setback is proposed to be 15 feet, but a 35-foot setback is required.