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Planning Board declines to extend developer's permit
By David Zimmer
Staff Writer
Suburban Trends
Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A proposed 53-lot subdivision off Ridge Road, which recently had its state Highlands Act exemption rescinded, was denied a time extension on the subdivision approval by the Planning Board, leaving the project in limbo pending an appeal with the state.

Though the Planning Board granted approval for the Village on Ridge subdivision in January 2005 and an extension on that approval in 2007, this time the board voted to halt the application process and deny any further extensions. The board also decided against amending the 2005 approval to extend the deadline to fulfill the application's preconditions, which includes obtaining the required permits.

Property owner Jack Levkovitz said during the board hearing on Feb. 26 that the housing development's infrastructure has been steadily worked on for nearly four years and is nearly 90 percent complete, with curbs, roads and catch basins as well as sewer and utility lines already in the ground.

However, according to a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), after an inspection in early February, DEP officials determined the site, which was given an exemption from the Highlands Act in 2006, has not been worked on since August 2007 and was technically "abandoned."

As a result, the DEP voided the Highlands exemption for the project, which means the land cannot be built on or even subdivided.

While Levkovitz's lawyer Robert Simon said there were provisions in the municipal land use law that would allow for the board to extend the approval further, the Board's attorney, Thomas Germinario, said that with the issues surrounding the application, the Planning Board has no authority to extend its 2005 approval at this juncture.

Before the board's vote, Councilman Robert Nolan also urged the Planning Board to deny the extension, saying that the applicant would use the granting of an extension to try and convince the DEP that the township wants to see this project go forward.

Since Levkovitz claims he started the project before the Highlands legislation was passed, he told Suburban Trends that he has a lot of permits and other evidence that will help him with an appeal against the DEP's decision. He said since he never stopped working on the project for an extended period of time, the decision to rescind his Highlands exemption was unfair and he will work to get the exemption back, while seeking a water allocation permit.

Water Allocation Concerns
Site Engineer Wendell Inhoffer said the three wells for the subdividion produce a total of approximately 140 gallons a minute, which the DEP verified in the late 1980s. Inhoffer said that since the wells are adequate and the plan to tie in the subdivision's sewers with the West Milford Municipal Utilities Authority lines near Olde Milford Estates is progressing, the application should be able to obtain the propert water allocation permit for the system.

Nevertheless, resident Doris Aaronson said that after the wells were used for a period of time during their tests, the water table in the area was significantly lower. Moreover, she said the test also decreased the amount of available water in other nearby wells. Since the water table was not able to regenerate, she said, it would stand to reason that at some point the subdivision would run out of water.

According to the state DEP's Web site, a water allocation permit in the Highlands Preservation Area is required for the withdrawal of ground and/or surface water in excess of 50,000 gallons of water per day for a period of more than 30 days in a consecutive 365-day period, for purposes other than agriculture, aquaculture or horticulture.

Aaronson said the ground water regeneration could be even slower now, as there has been a good amount of construction in the area since the wells were last tested in 1989. As an example, she mentioned the denial of well permits for a subdivision known as Eagle Ridge, which she said probably used the same water source because it is located only a third of a mile from the proposed Village on Ridge subdivision.

Aaronson added that according to township ordinance, the board should not approv any application until it can be proven that the project will not hurt the environment, destroy regional resources or diminish total resouces, which all relate to the water table.

The Planning Board's engineer, Paul Ferriero, said that he is uncertain about any water issues at this point. Without a Highlands exemption and a water allocation permit, he said there was no need.

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