Home-based business plan pulled from zoning board BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer FREEHOLD - An application that had been in front of the Zoning Board of Adjustment seeking a use variance to permit a home-based business to operate out of a single-family home on West Main Street has been withdrawn. The proposal, which was heard by the board on June 26, was withdrawn by attorney Salvatore Alfieri without prejudice on behalf of the applicant, E&E DiCosmo. Alfieri advised the zoning board in a Sept. 25 letter that his client would be withdrawing the application. He did not provide a reason why the application was being pulled from the board's docket. Alfieri did not return several telephone messages left at his Matawan office last week seeking comment as to why the application was pulled. Testimony at the June 26 hearing had been provided by Alfieri and planner John Leoncavallo. The hearing drew a group of residents who live near the home at 109 W. Main St. and were objecting to the applicant's request for a use variance. Neither Elio nor Elaine DiCosmo, the applicants for the proposal, appeared at the hearing. The application, filed in January, initially sought a mixed-use variance to accommodate office and residential uses in the residence. Leoncavallo said that after researching Freehold Borough's master plan he determined that the initial request would be inconsistent with the master plan. He said he believed the request for a use variance to permit a home-based business would have a better chance of being approved. He said the conversion of the residence to a home-based business would offer less use and intensity with traffic and people than it does now. Alfieri said the owners did not intend to live in the home and wanted to switch the use from rental to business. Board members were not happy with that fact as well as the fact that the applicant's representatives could not state how many people are presently living in the rental home. Alfieri said when the owner bought the house he thought its use was commercial. He said the owner was having problems with the current residents and believed it would be better to have a business owner in the home rather than keeping the residence as rental units. Leoncavallo said the owner's son, who is in college, planned to move into the home and open a business, although he was not certain when that would occur. The plan was to use 500 square feet of the home for the business. One resident who attended the hearing wanted to know what the rest of the home would be used for. Other residents complained that the property is not being maintained and is getting rundown. One resident believed the residence is being used as a boarding home.