Judge sends application back to Planning Board
BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

Marlboro

MARLBORO - A decision not to decide on a much-debated Planning Board application was made in court last week.

State Superior Court Judge Alexander D. Lehrer, sitting in Freehold, remanded the Sunny Acres application back to the Planning Board in order for the board to begin hearing testimony on the housing project.

The lawsuit, which was filed by representatives of Sunny Acres in June, stemmed from a dispute over whether a Planning Board application filed by that entity had received preliminary approval.

The application was submitted to the board on March 14, 2005. The project was seeking preliminary major subdivision approval to build 19 homes on a 50-acre tract on Buckley Road.

The applicant proposed to subdivide the property into 22 lots. The project included the construction of 19 single-family homes, one lot containing a stormwater management basin, and two lots containing existing homes. The applicant was requesting relief from one requirement, an undersized lot on which the detention basin would be created.

According to Dennis Collins, the attorney representing the Planning Board, Sunny Acres was not asking Lehrer to decide whether the application had received preliminary approval. Included in the motion that was heard on Oct. 19 was a request for a decision on whether the applicant would need a variance for the detention basin lot.

According to attorney Wayne Peck, who is representing the applicant, his clients received preliminary approval for their site plan by default because the board failed to take action on the application within the required 120 days of the date when the application was deemed to be complete. Because the application to construct the development was deemed complete on Sept. 23, 2005, the board had until Jan. 21, 2006 to vote on it.

When the applicant's claim of preliminary approval became public in February, a dispute over the approval arose between Collins and Peck. The two differed in opinion on almost every piece of information that dealt with the process in which the application allegedly received approval.

In regard to the court case on Oct. 19, Collins said the proposed detention basin lot does not meet the required frontage along Buckley Road. Collins said representatives of Sunny Acres believe that because it is a lot containing a detention basin it should not have to meet the frontage requirements.

However, according to Collins, Lehrer decided to let the application appear before the Planning Board before he made a decision on the case.

According to Michael Schottland, who is also representing the applicant, the judge retained jurisdiction over the application and will be supervising the case when it appears before the board.

Schottland added that after a decision by the board is made on the entire Sunny Acres application, the judge will hold a case management conference to see where the application stands. He said that is when the issues of the case will be addressed.

If the detention basin lot were to have the same frontage as the other lots, the applicant would lose one buildable lot. Representatives of Sunny Acres will have to decide if they want to come before the board with a no-variance application (reducing the plans by one buildable lot) or if they will choose to seek the variance for the detention basin frontage.

According to Schottland, it is his client's intention to go before the board seeking a variance for the detention basin lot.

Although Collins said no mention of the default approval was made in court last week, the issue is not closed and can still be decided at a later date.

After a vote on the application has been made by the Planning Board, Collins said, Sunny Acres representatives can still claim they received preliminary approval. He said this could be done in order for the applicant to get out of dealing with the township's affordable housing obligation.

Developing municipalities have a state mandate to provide housing for individuals and families with low and moderate incomes, as defined by the state Council on Affordable Housing.

Earlier this year the Township Council adopted an ordinance relating to the township's third round or "growth share" affordable housing obligation. The law requires that for every eight market-rate homes built in Marlboro, one affordable unit is required to be built; for every 25 jobs created by development, one affordable unit must be built.

According to Collins, this ordinance was adopted by the Township Council after Sunny Acres claimed to have received preliminary approval.

When disclosure forms for the application were submitted in November 2004, the principals of the Holmdel-based company called Sunny Acres were listed as Steven Meiterman (16 percent); Gloria Meiterman (16 percent); Eddie Kay (16 percent); Terry Sherman (25 percent); and Anthony Spalliero (25 percent).

The forms were revised in January 2006 to replace Spalliero's name with the name of Domenica Russo, who is known to be Spalliero's ex-wife. The same Holmdel address was listed on the forms for Russo and Spalliero.