Housing objections persist

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER

RINGWOOD - Hearings over a plan to build 39 homes on West Brook Mountain are focusing on details big and small as opponents seek to stop the development of a craggy site above the Wanaque Reservoir.

Developer Jack Levkovitz's experts say their proposal meets local and state requirements. But on Monday, at the third Planning Board hearing on Levkovitz's West Brook Hills II subdivision application, those assurances were chipped away by questions and comments from officials and audience members.

Levkovitz was back with revisions to a proposal that the board tentatively approved in January.

That action unraveled when objectors complained that the legal notice for the application contained an error in listing the site's block and lot numbers.

Objectors include Skylands CLEAN, the local ecology group, which wants the 166-acre forested tract preserved as open space, and the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, which operates the nearby Wanaque Reservoir.

In the latest hearing, the developer's attorney, Glenn Peterson, said negotiations with the water utility, which is a state agency, should satisfy concerns about potentially contaminated runoff.

"I'm optimistic we will be able to satisfy those concerns," Peterson said.

But the water utility's lawyer, Ryan Scerbo, characterized the two sides as far apart, with the talks just getting started.

"We are asking for some things over and above what the board may require," Scerbo said.

Describing the proposed street network, project engineer Frank Loscalzo testified that no state permit would be needed for stream crossings. But Borough Engineer Edward Haack said the project will need a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to put in a proposed culvert to pipe a mountain stream under a street.

In other testimony, Loscalzo said the development would increase runoff from the mountain only "marginally."

That statement was challenged by Thomas McAllen, a former Planning Board member. In reply to McAllen's questions, Loscalzo said he had not made calculations of current runoff from the site and projected runoff after development.

The hearing was continued to June 30, when Skylands CLEAN is to present testimony by an environmental expert.

Jan Barry's e-mail address is barry@northjersey.com
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