Our opposition to the proposal for a warehouse office building at Tennent and Amboy roads in Marlboro, diagonally across from our home, was well reported in the March 26 News Transcript ("Office, Warehouse Space Gains Planners’ Approval).
As your story made clear, the Planning Board approved Ambten Associates’ application by overriding safeguards built into the zoning ordinance to protect adjacent residential property owners.
The 3.8-acre lot where Garden Irrigation wants to relocate is undersized; the minimum lot size allowed in the IOR zone is 5 acres. Consequently, Ambten also needed variances to disregard the zoning law’s requirements for a 150-foot setback, 50- foot buffer and fencing when the IOR zone borders a residential zone.
The variances were granted with no discussion by board members of the impact on our property value and quality of life, despite the appeal we made to uphold the safeguards the zoning ordinance mandates.
There was other evidence that should have been considered, but wasn’t.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment conducted hearings on this same application in 2006-07, and zoning board members expressed concern that the property would be "overwhelmingly overbuilt." They also commented on the owner’s current site, Garden Irrigation on Route 9 near Texas Road, particularly the company’s ignoring restrictions imposed when it won approval to locate on the highway in the 1980s.
Ever since, there has been a running battle with code enforcement authorities over the company’s parking many more trucks than allowed, and its illegal leveling of trees on neighboring property it does not own in order to expand its parking lot.
Garden Irrigation has not been a good neighbor at its present site. The Planning Board should have recognized the unfairness of allowing the company to relocate in a largely residential neighborhood.
All of the zoning board’s objections were part of the record turned over to the Planning Board when the applicant elected to withdraw its bid from one board and seek approval from the other. But there is no sign that the Planning Board paid any heed to the red flags the zoners waved.
We will see if the courts take a more even-handed look at the wisdom of trashing the zoning ordinance and downgrading a neighborhood to achieve a ratable payday.
Alexander Ingham
Nadine Lawson
Marlboro