The Hillsborough Township Planning Board approved a minor subdivision for a property on Railsedge Road and Brower Lane.
The decision came from the Hillsborough planners at a Sept. 5 meeting where the applicant, Neil Van Cleef, sought minor subdivision approval to adjust an existing lot line to reconfigure two lots of property situated near 10 Railsedge Road and 32 Brower Lane. The property in discussion for the application is the current site of the Van Cleef Engineering Associates office complex in Hillsborough.
According to the submitted application, no new site improvements or changes were proposed as part of the application on properties in the central residential or gateway zoning districts.
Michael O’Grodnick, the attorney for the applicant, explained to the planning board that the proposed subdivision is intended to have little to no impact on the property or surrounding area.
“We are here for a proposed lot line adjustment that essentially squares off a lot and makes it a little cleaner,” O’Grodnick said. “This is a lot line adjustment. We are not proposing any type of improvements or changes. This will not create any new non-conformities. It will not create any new variances or waivers proposed as part of this minor subdivision application.”
Although O’Grodnick stated that the proposed subdivision is not intended to develop a non-conforming alteration to the site, he explained that there are multiple existing ones already in place.
“There are several existing non conformities. They are maximum front yard setbacks, minimum side yard setbacks, maximum building height and minimum buffer along residential zones,” he said.
According to the application, two lots (33.12 and 34.01) within property block 199, would be affected by this application. O’Grodnick said that Lot 34.01 is a commercial lot approximately 6.89 acres in area and occupied by the Van Cleef office complex.
Upon approval by the township planners, the applicant’s attorney explained that the subdivision would increase the area of the commercial lot.
“Mathematically, the lot line adjustment will reduce lot 33.12 from .57 acres to .45 acres,” he explained. “Conversely, lot 34.01 will be increased from an area of 6.29 acres to 6.41 acres.”
After O’Grodnick’s description of the application and the property, he introduced the site engineer for the applicant, Michael Ford. Ford was then sworn in by the planning board and provided testimony regarding the intent of the minor subdivision.
“It’s a simple application in the sense that it’s just a lot line adjustment, basically correcting an awkwardly configured leg of its property that extends into the back of the office complex and adjacent to existing parking spaces,” Ford said. “What we propose to do is square off that lot line and make it straight and more or less parallel to Railsedge Road.”
Ford explained that approval of the lot line adjustment would make the property a fully conforming lot in the township’s Central Residential zone.
The site engineer also said that there is no proposed construction at this time, but did mention there may be future additional work done on the office lot.
After Ford’s testimony, the planning board members made a motion to approve and unanimously pass the minor subdivision application.
