Town houses proposed in West Milford Village

WEST MILFORD — An application for construction of 10 town houses on vacant property at 1463 Union Valley Road in the center of West Milford Village will be before Zoning Board of Adjustment members for consideration at the next meeting on June 26.
Randa Investments, LLC, the current property owner, is the applicant. A use variance is requested because town houses are not permitted in the Village Commercial Zone.
Bulk variance relief is requested under a section of local law, which requires that the setback be 20 feet maximum. The proposal includes a setback of 60.7 feet.
Other variances are also requested because the applicant’s plan does not conform to some existing municipal regulations.
These include having proposed dwelling units on the first floor, dwelling units without association with a commercial use and parking in the front yard.
The proposal does not conform to the regulation on maximum unit density. Instead of the allowed maximum of eight units per site, there are 10 units in the plan. Under the current rule, there is a maximum 800 square feet per unit floor area allowed. This proposal calls for 1,340. The local law does not allow apartment access through individual exterior doors, which the applicant requests.
Deadline for board action on the application is Aug. 15.
The tract is 1.367 of an acre. The property sold for $135,000 in 2013. It is assessed at $102,300. Taxes are $3,794 annually, according to public records.
Correspondence was received by township officials from the Highlands Council in connection with the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act advised that if the use variance is granted, a full consistency determination may be required.
If the applicant applies for an exemption and the project does not qualify, they will need to apply for a Highlands Preservation Area approval with a waiver from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Highlands Council as well as a Brownfields Redevelopment Area designation.
Additional correspondence to the township from the Highlands Council regarding Randa Investments, LLC, advised that they are closing the previously submitted application for a Highlands Redevelopment area designation, which had originally proposed a mixed use building for the site.
Records show that the property was included on the Passaic County list of sites with on-source contamination in 2001.
Identification of areas was part of the county’s Brownfields Assessment Program that was funded through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In years that followed the problem, the property was addressed with successful remediation and removed from the list.
In the 1940s and early '50s, a Sunoco gasoline station and general store were on the site.
— Ann Genader