Zoners give consideration
to adult day care center
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — It will surely take more than a day for zoning board members to make their decision about All In A Day.
Representatives of All In A Day, an adult day care center, are seeking a variance in order to expand a non-conforming use. They are also seeking site plan approval. The applicant will have to examine several issues, among them road widening, the existence of a 40-inch diameter tree in the middle of the site and the number of parking spaces provided.
The All In A Day proposal is an expansion of the Pine Brook Care Center, Pension Road. The applicant is seeking a variance because a day care center is not a permitted use in the residential zone.
Following an initial hearing before the board, all of those issues need to be re-examined before the applicant returns to seek approval.
Leslie Fisher, director, provided testimony about the proposed facility and said, "The center will provide medically supervised services, social services and recreational programs for those who don’t need 24-hour adult nursery care. We expect 50 people, but the average will be between 20 to 30 daily."
Fisher told the board it is expected that business will be conducted at the new center from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and there will be a staff of five employees and a consultant.
Patients will be transported to and from the center in shifts, using vans which will carry handicapped patients and those who are not handicapped.
Fisher said the care center will be beneficial to the community and mean that the elderly will not have to be left home alone during the day.
Certain criteria will be necessary in order to obtain this service, Fisher explained. Those people who use the center will have to have some kind of medical necessity or need supervision, such as those who have Alzheimer’s disease.
Fisher also indicated that a doctor from the Pine Brook Care Center would be available, if needed, and a registered nurse would be at the center in addition to other employees.
Sean Deverin, the attorney representing All In A Day, said the plan calls for two separate companies to be operating under one building with an extension.
Project engineer Ron Lai described the property as a 16-acre site located at the intersection of Pension and Pine Brook roads. The entrance is on Pension Road and parking is on the south side of the building. There is no curbing in the parking lot.
Lai said the increase of runoff due to impervious areas would be minimal. Describing the entrance in relation to the parking, Lai indicated that there will be a canopy constructed over the main door.
The engineer said two handicapped accessible parking spaces would be moved away from the entrance to a more southerly location, and that there would be 84 parking spaces.
There will only be parking lot lighting on the south side of the parking lot.
"We will add five fixtures, one a double light on a pole," said the engineer. "There will be no glare coming from the lights."
Board member Salvatore Vitale questioned the width of the entrance road to the care center and was told by Lai that the applicant would provide the right of way, but would not widen the road.
Board member Maureen Castellani said she was concerned with the location of the two handicapped parking spaces and the number of parking spaces, 84, which only increased the number of spots by three for the entire building from the original 81 used by the Pine Brook Care Center.
Lai said day care drop-off users do not require a parking space.
Mark Lescavage, the zoning board engineer, said he was concerned with the slope in the area where handicapped spaces would be located.
"Only a 2 percent slope is allowed across a handicapped spot," Lescavage said. "Handicapped van [parking] spaces [also] need to be wider."
Lai said he would provide alternatives and see if they can work better.
Architect Walter J. Hughes Jr. of Springhouse, Pa., further described the site.
"It’s an approximate 5,000-square-foot addition to the exiting nursing home which will reuse an existing 2,000-square-foot original house, which was built before the nursing home existed," Hughes said. "The two will be combined to provide 50 adult day care spaces and there will also be a connecting corridor to connect the day care facility to the existing entrance for the outpatient physical therapy department."
During testimony, Hughes indicated there is a tree with a 40-inch diameter in the area where the day care addition is to be built. Hughes noted that several construction problems exist.
"There is no way to reduce the building size to go around the tree," said the architect.
Board member Diane Padlo explained how a similar problem existed during the construction of the Wemrock Brook School, Millhurst Road, which delayed construction for a considerable period of time. Eventually, the area had to be redesigned, she said.
"It was a star specimen tree that was in the way," Padlo said. "It delayed construction for a whole year."
Padlo told the architect that hopefully there will be some creativity used in addressing the situation.