Wednesday, September 17, 2003 RINGWOOD - Pressured by mandatory deadlines, the Planning Board is set to vote Monday on Jack Levkovitz's proposed housing development near West Brook's trout pools.
The action looms as a fishing club scrambles with an eleventh-hour challenge to the developer's claims that the project will not ruin the brook with silt and other runoff.
In a flurry of letters between lawyers, Board Attorney H. Shepard Peck Jr. recently advised Windbeam Fishing Club lawyer Francis DeVito that time is running out for objectors to make their case.
"The board must act - make a decision - on Sept. 22 or face the prospect of the applicant seeking to obtain 'default approval'" in court, Peck wrote, citing a state law setting time limits on considering development applications. That means, he wrote, "we must conclude the testimony, we must conclude the open public comment phase, the board must deliberate and make a decision on Sept. 22."
The Planning Board is considering an application for 39 building lots on a 165-acre forested tract on West Brook Mountain. Streams on the land flow into West Brook, a tributary of the Wanaque Reservoir.
The fishing club owns land along West Brook downstream from this property and an adjacent parcel where Levkovitz is building 28 homes. The club wants to prevent construction runoff and silt from flowing into the trout stream. Officials have reported such problems with current construction.
Levkovitz's experts testified that they are following all state and local requirements on handling storm-water runoff.
The building application's 120-day action period ended this month. But Levkovitz agreed to its extension until Monday's hearing, after DeVito appeared before the board last month with an aquatic biologist who has studied the West Brook on behalf of the fishing club.
"Please be prepared to proceed in a succinct fashion with any additional evidence which the Windbeam Fishing Club wishes to present," Peck wrote.
DeVito replied that he disagrees with Peck's ruling. He argued that boards are obligated to hear experts hired by objectors and that he intends to present engineering and environmental experts when the hearing continues.
However, he added, "I still do not have the information necessary to submit to my experts, and the town files were not complete to secure them."
In reply to a previous letter, Peck said he directed the board secretary to send DeVito copies of all documents "that are available in the board's file."
E-mail: barry@northjersey.com