By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – Members of the Marlboro Planning Board have granted final approval to an application filed by a developer who plans to build 15 homes on Buckley Road.
Representatives of Stillwell Holdings, LLC, appeared before the board on Sept. 21. The board had granted preliminary approval to the application on Nov. 4, 2015.
Plans indicate the 38-acre property on Buckley Road will contain 17 lots – 15 lots for new single-family homes, one open space lot with a storm water management basin and one reconfigured lot which will contain an existing dwelling.
Each lot will be a minimum of 60,000 square feet (about 1.5 acres) and each home is estimated to be between 3,500 and 4,000 square feet, according to testimony that was presented to the board.
Plans call for Buckley Road to be widened and for a sidewalk to be provided on the side of the road where the homes are constructed. Two cul-de-sacs will provide access to the homes, according to the testimony.
Attorney Salvatore Alfieri represented Stillwell Holdings.
At the Nov. 4, 2015 hearing, testimony was presented from Terry Sherman, a principal of the company, and Mark Zelina, a senior associate with Maser Consulting, Red Bank.
Sherman noted that a previous application was approved in 2007 for 19 homes at the Buckley Road site. He said the plans were redesigned by 2015 to comply with Marlboro’s municipal code at that time.
Testimony indicated that no homes that would qualify as affordable housing under state guidelines will be built on the Buckley Road parcel.
The application was not granted final approval in November 2015 because two variances appeared to be required for the portion of the plan dealing with structures on the new lot being created to contain the existing home and barn, according to a report from the board’s engineer, CME Associates.
In the vote to grant final approval on Sept. 21, seven board members agreed to approve the variances that were required on that lot.
Board Chairman Mark Barenburg, Township Councilwoman Carol Mazzola, who sits on the board, and board members Christopher Cherbini, David Gagliano, Rohit Gupta, Andrew Pargament and Michael Slotopolsky voted to grant final approval.
Board Vice Chairman Michael Messinger voted no and said he did so because when the board granted preliminary approval in 2015, he voted no because he was concerned about a lack of affordable housing units in the application. He said affordable housing units should be included in all applications similar to this one.
The board’s attorney, Michael Herbert, said a Marlboro ordinance requires a developer to make a payment into the township’s affordable housing trust fund if he is not building any affordable housing units in conjunction with his approved development.
However, in the case of Stillwell Holdings, the subdivision is the result of litigation from about 20 years ago and a payment to the affordable housing trust fund may not be required in this instance, Herbert said.
