MANALAPAN – The Golden Years adult day care service, which several years ago moved into space that was previously occupied by a private school, will be permitted to expand its operations into a vacant building on the 10-acre Woodward Road site in Manalapan where it operates.
During the July 20 meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, board members granted a use variance to Golden Years LLC which will allow the business to occupy an 8,700-square-foot building in the township’s Rural Residential zone. A health care facility is not a permitted use in the zone.
Golden Years received a use variance when it moved its operation from Freehold Borough to Manalapan several years ago and revived the former Chesterbrook Academy facilities. The day care center has been occupying a 14,700-square-foot building since that time.
Golden Years was represented by attorney Gerald Sonnenblick, engineer John Ploskonka, owner Mike Yalovitser and planner Allison Coffin.
Yalovitser testified that everyone who is served by Golden Years is brought to the site by bus and returned home the same way. He said 80 clients are served during the morning shift (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and 140 clients are served during the afternoon shift (1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.).
Sonnenblick said the operator is permitted to serve as many as 200 clients on each shift.
Yalovitser said the business employs between 22 and 25 employees on site at the present time. The expansion to the vacant building could add several employees, he said.
Services provided at Golden Years include nursing, meals, physical therapy and interaction with a social worker. The existing building has quiet rooms, a computer room, a library and a game room where clients work to keep their cognitive skills sharp, according to Yalovitser.
Clients who are dropped off at Golden Years who have a medical appointment on a specific day are driven to their doctor, according to the testimony.
Sonnenblick and Yalovitser said no clients leave the Golden Years property on foot to walk to a CVS pharmacy or to a Walgreens pharmacy that are both at the corner of Route 33 and Woodward Road.
Yalovitser testified that the business’s transportation office will be relocated from the main building to the building that is currently vacant. Also slated for the second building are nursing stations that will provide privacy for clients who speak different languages; group therapy rooms that will accommodate clients who speak different languages; and storage space.
Clients will walk the short distance between the two buildings if and when they need to do so.
Ploskonka testified there are 74 parking spaces at the adult day care center and he said that is sufficient now and will continue to be sufficient when Golden Years occupies the 8,700-square-foot building.
During her testimony, Coffin acknowledged that the health care use is not permitted in Manalapan’s Rural Residential zone, but said she concluded that permitting Golden Years to occupy the vacant building on the property will not impair the health, safety or welfare of the township.
She said when the zoning board approved the use of the property by Golden Years several years ago, its members found the use to be inherently beneficial. Coffin described the plan that was before the board on July 20 as an expansion of a use that had been found to be beneficial.
The board’s engineer and planner did not register any objections to the applicant’s request to expand the health care use to the second building.
Board member Barry Fisher said, “This facility has been running smoothly since it was initially approved and it does not interfere with the township’s master plan.”
Fisher made a motion to grant the variance to Golden Years for the use of the vacant building and he, board Chairman Stephen Leviton and board members Larry Cooper, Terry Rosenthal, Joanna Siminerio, Eve Strauss and Mary Anne Byan voted yes.