HOWELL – The members of the Howell Zoning Board of Adjustment have voted to grant a use variance and to approve an application that proposed the establishment of a contractor’s business on Route 9 south.
During a meeting on Feb. 28, zoning board Chairman Wendell Nanson, Vice Chairman Paul Sayah and board members Richard Mertens, Glenn Cantor, Matthew Hughes, James Moretti and Jose Orozco voted to approve “yes” on a motion to grant to approvals.
Applicant Robert Laskowski and owner 1600 Route 9, LLC, were seeking a use variance and preliminary and final major site plan approval to construct a 2,400-square-foot garage/storage building, a second story addition to an existing one-story home and associated site improvements for the purposes of operating a contractor’s business on the state highway.
Attorney Christopher Hanlon, engineer Anthony Maltese, planner Justin Auciello and Laskowski appeared before the board to present the application.
Laskowski owns the property on Route 9 south, in the vicinity of the Chapter House restaurant. He said his father started the company in Union County in 1978 and he has since taken over the business.
He said the business “has sort of been in between towns, in between counties, trying to set up a shop where we can call home. We mainly specialize in industrial and commercial contracting.”
Laskowski said his company does not do any residential work. All of the work the company does is completed at the clients’ locations, which are industrial and commercial in nature.
“My guys all have trucks at their houses that they take to a job site, we don’t meet anywhere first,” he told the board members.
Laskowski plans to expand the existing two-bedroom, one-bath home for office use by adding a second floor to the existing structure.
“It is a little house. It is nothing to look at, quite frankly, and I am just looking to convert it into offices for my project managers, office manager, myself, my father, things like that. And to put a garage in the back to take care of any kind of trucks or trailers or any kind of leftover material we might have,” he said.
The applicant will provide a fireproof cabinet for the storage of any toxic paints that are in the garage. According to a municipal ordinance, any hazardous materials must be registered with the Office of Emergency Management.
“It really is just leftover paint … there is (nothing) I think the general public would consider extremely hazardous, but absolutely (we will register the materials),” Laskowski told the board members.
Laskowski said there are two vehicles currently on the property and he said he wants to be able to store them in the proposed garage.
Following the testimony provided by the applicant’s representatives, the board members voted unanimously to grant the requested variance relief and site plan approval.