Zoning Board loves idea
of more homes in town

Marlboro residents should be livid at an approval for new homes granted by the Zoning Board to local developer Dan Werbler.

At a time when residential development shows no sign of slowing in Marlboro, the zoning board has just granted a variance that will permit the construction of 35 homes on a piece of property zoned for commercial uses on Tennent Road.

The decision makes a mockery of the town’s master plan.

This decision by the Zoning Board has the look of an accommodation for a builder who has constructed hundreds of homes in the community.

It is the obligation of the Township Council to zone Marl-boro for development, and it is the responsibility of the Planning and Zoning boards to follow that guide. The members of those boards are appointed, not elected, and do not have a mandate from residents to set development policy for the town.

The granting of a variance that completely changes the intended use of a piece of property is a de facto zoning change. In Marl-boro, only the council can change zoning.

In our opinion, a decision that puts houses where a business should be is a zoning change. Simple as that.

Someone should be asking what Marlboro will get out of this application filed by Werbler. It seems to us that instead of a commercial ratable that will add to the tax base, Marlboro will get 35 homes, perhaps another 50 or so schoolchildren where none would have resulted from commercial development; the town will also get a "donation" of 6 acres of open space under high tension lines. That’s good for nothing.

Oh yes, the planned Tennent Estates (that’s a good one — "estates" on half-acre lots!) development will also have a sewage pump station that will open up this area of Tennent Road and no doubt make it easier for more developers to come in with plans for homes and make the case that since one housing development has been approved, so should their applications for homes.

One should also consider what Werbler will get out of this approval: the right to sell 35 homes for several hundred thousand dollars each.

That Werbler didn’t ask the Township Council to change the zoning on this piece of property and instead sought a variance from the Zoning Board raises troubling questions about just who is running Marlboro, the council or the Zoning Board chairwoman.

Rather than making the argument, as some Zoning Board members did, that the pump station Werbler plans to build will open up the area to development, that’s the reason why they should have voted to deny the application for the variance.

Marlboro needs less residential development, not more. How did that fact slip past the board members who voted in favor of this application?

The Zoning Board approval was not unanimous. The applicant failed to convince board member Grover Burrows that zoning established by elected officials should be busted wide open.

Maybe board Chairwoman Sherry Hoffer and board members Eric Menaker, Gerald New-man, Joseph Castellucci, Steven Wexler and Deborah Hoffman believe that more children are needed in township schools and more cars are needed on Marl-boro’s roads.