The application for the subdivision of 605 Warwick Road will once again be a topic of the next Haddonfield Planning Board meeting.
The board again had to push off a determination for the application from applicant/developer Mark DeFeo due to time constraints. This meeting saw input from borough engineer Todd Day, but once again public comment wasn’t able to be reached that night.
The new proposal for 605 Warwick subdivisions has a 13,000 square foot lot fronted by Warwick Road, a 15,600 square foot lot fronted by Warwick and Gill roads, and a 21,400 square foot lot fronted by Treaty Elm Lane and Gill Road. The new applications also addressed the concerns the Planning Board had from the previous application, including storm water management, lot depth, lot lines, parking areas and traffic.
The board opened the hearing on Jan. 5 with some discussion and comments from Day, who was not available at the last meeting, but listened to the recording so he could give opinions and recommendations to the board.
Storm water management was a big discussion at the meeting again. At the December meeting, DeFeo’s architect, Clifton Quay of Stantec, presented two types of drainage systems that would be applied to the properties. The one would control roof and patio run off, creating a subsystem of pipes and chambers that would allow for slower release, easier cleaning and easier repair if a problem were to occur. The second was a subsystem underneath the driveways that would allow for water run off storage and release of water at a slow rate. Each house would have its own separate system.
The reduction standards recommended are that for two years there is a 50 percent reduction, 10 years is 75 percent reduction and 100 years is 80 percent reduction. For the overall site area, the reductions are 62 percent. When the board expressed concern with not meeting the two-year reduction, Quay said this could be addressed by putting a lawn drain into the underground systems, which they can do.
Day reviewed this and agreed that the storm water management proposed moves the water away from where there is a problem and releases it at a slower rate.
Another big subject of the meeting was impervious surfaces and land disturbance. Impervious surfaces, part of land disturbance, are not penetrable by water, and adding impervious surfaces could add more storm water.
For something to not be considered a major development by the borough and the state, it has to be less than one acre of land disturbance. The proposal has 0.98 acres of land disturbance, making it not a major development by .02 acres, which also concerned the board.
From the back and forth of the board, the developer and the opposition, there wasn’t a clear determination of whether the impervious surfaces and land disturbance would cause more flooding.
A determination was not made, as the meeting passed 11 p.m., the cut off time of the Planning Board’s meetings.
The Feb. 2 Planning Board meeting will host the hearing beginning with comments and questions from the public. It will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Borough Hall.
In other news:
The board approved a preliminary proposal by Haddonfield Public Schools for sidewalk improvements for student pick-up and drop-off.
At Haddonfield Memorial High School, the sidewalk along Sylvan Lake Avenue would be renovated up to the bus parking area, and stairs and handrails would be updated as well to bring them into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
At the elementary and middle schools, the district plan would eliminate the grass median between the sidewalk and the curb line, normalize uneven concrete and create barrier-free, ADA-compliant loading zones.
The board approval of the measure will allow it to proceed to the referendum phase in March.
