BY TOYNETT HALL
Staff Writer
HOWELL – Applause swept through the room on June 7 when Planning Board members voted 8-1 to deny approval to applicant Oak Glen Estates for a 28-home subdivision on a 19.8-acre parcel on Oak Glen Road.
Residents voiced their concern about the potential disturbance they believed the application could have caused to their properties.
According to a 2006 report prepared by Planning Board engineer Ernest Peters, “The applicant proposes to remove all existing site improvements and subdivide the properties into 28 single-family residential lots and one open space lot which will be located to the rear of the site encompassing much of the wetlands. Provide access via boulevard-style drive toward the north of the site; provide sanitary service by gravity connection through a proposed easement to an existing main within Kiwi Loop.”
Laurie Lasker, of Kiwi Loop, was concerned about the developer running a sewer line on her property.
“I’m presently the owner of the property on which the sanitary sewer line is going to be run through. I just recently found out there is an easement on my property. My surveys and the map that is filed in the township reflect that there is no easement there. I didn’t know about these easements when I purchased my home; obviously they were privately owned. I’d like proof that Centex [the developer] has purchased these easements,” Lasker said.
John Klubnick of Kiwi Loop shared Lasker’s sentiments. He said if township documents do not reflect an easement, then it does not exist.
“If the [information] Howell supplied does not have an easement on it, is there really an easement on that property? Looking at the tax map, the town maps, the surveys, shows no easement – is there really an easement there, because this other company said there was?” Klubnick said.
William Pettersen of Kiwi Loop expressed concern about losing value on his property and wanted reassurance that the Oak Glen Estates project would be done in a reasonable amount of time.
“With the sewer line going through my property, I’m going to lose value on my property. Who is going to compensate me for the cost of our value? I come out the loser while they come out making millions,” Pettersen said.
Resident Ferdinando Dimaggio asked the board to protect the residents.
Township Councilman Mike Howell, who sits on the board, said, “The applicant has a new attorney, kept the same engineer, and everything that he agreed to he doesn’t agree with anymore so he wants a do-over. I’m [ticked] off that Centex came up here and sold us a bill of goods and then lied here before us in this room. I don’t believe anything else they say.”
Board member Paul Sayah made a motion to deny the application. Sayah, Howell, Russell Bohlin, James Burgess, Christopher Estevez, Michael Morello, Paul Schneider and Marlene West voted to deny the application.
Board member Marc Leber voted against denying the application, saying, “I think the site could be laid out in another fashion.”