Public speaks out on West Brook Plan

By Carol Fletcher
Staff Writer
Suburban Trends
7-30-03

Ringwood -- The hearings concerning the proposed and fiercely debated development of West Brook Hills II continued last night in a nearly three and a half-hour planning board meeting. Residents were for the first time given a chance to speak publicly since the meeting commenced last winter, once Borough Engineer Ed Haack concluded his testimony.

Haack’s testimony discussed his findings of an alternative method of calculating the much-contested steep slopes averages. “There has been a great deal of discussion of slope analysis,” began Haack. “A copy of an ordinance from Atherton, Calif., takes an infinitesimal amount, the most conservative and most accurate, a purely mathematical number.”

Haack then described that this method, which he discovered through recent research, was probably the most accurate method available for measuring steep slopes lots and determining an average.

As a result of this “purely mathematical formula,” Haack continued, explaining that approximately nine to 20 of the proposed lots, which is the number of lots originally contested by Skylands CLEAN’s environmental expert in the previous board meeting in an article by The Record as exceeding the 20 percent grade limit, would need slope waivers. However, Haack continued, if the averages on these lots were themselves averaged together, the total average of the lots would only exceed the 20 percent grade limit by about 21.5%, or under five percent.
Haack concluded, saying, “We need to put the slope ordinance to rest, or else, we’ll have a million numbers.”

However, when questioned on how much some of the individual lots exceeded the 20 percent slope limit, Haack noted that two of the lots, lot numbers 20 and 33, were a good deal over the limit, at 26.2 and 24 percent respectively, but added that most were not a big different from the grade limit.

Planning Board Member and Executive Secretary Gerard Hampel responded to this, saying “Three percent is a big difference, if it is over the 20 percent limit.”

Additional discussions continued between the board members with Haack on ways that the currently drawn lots could be redrawn and combined to avoid the need for slope ordinances (waivers) and to create public access to the state land that apparently borders part of the area proposed for development.

Glenn Peterson, attorney for the developer, questioned Haack on his decision to use the Atherton method of slope calculations since Haack has never used this method prior to this development, since he became the borough engineer in 1985.

The second most contested issue in the history of the proposed West brook II development was raised by Ross Kushner of the Pequannock River Coalition and other local residents, including the trout fisherman from the Windbeam Club, during the public discussion period.

The Planning Board members would not allow Kushner and other members of the public to refer to the purported ineffective storm water management system at Lefkovitz’s first development, West Brook I, currently under construction.

Haack gave a general description of the underground infiltration system that has been designed for the 39-home development, explaining that normal storm water runoff will be filtered under ground, and that any excess storm water flow will end up in the fresh water wetlands.

While Kushner questioned both the effectiveness of the underground system and the ‘secretive’ system design engineering details that were agreed upon privately between the developer and the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, other members of the public questioned the possible cost of maintaining the system and the future of the Westbrook stream if the planned infiltration system fails to effectively filter out dangerous contaminants.

“What you have is a million dollar stream and a five and 10 storm water system,” said Kushner, referring to the stream that houses three species of trout, and whose decades of successful existence speaks for the stream’s high water quality.

Agust Kr. Gudmundsson, Chairman of the New Jersey Count of Trout spoke publicly and informed the board that he was the environmental commissioner for a development that is planning on using a similar underground infiltration system.

“Sixty percent of a $500,000 budget was allocated for maintenance (of the system) for our times per year,” said Gudmundsson, in response to Haack’s explanation that the proposed system would only need cleaning twice a year.

“They are very effective,” Gudmundsson warned, “but it has a substantial cost.”

When questioned as to whether the twice a year system maintenance planned for the storm water system was from the applicant of the Department of Environmental Protection, Haack confirmed that it was from the DEP.

Kushner, who presented to the board an extensive report expressing the Coalition’s numerous concerns about the development citing laws from the DEP as supporting arguments, concluded his report suggesting t the board that an outside source be retained to evaluate the storm water system.

Peterson questioned whether the board would be accepting the report as evidence, and the board replied that it would.

Three area residents, who Levkovitz identified as being past buyers of his homes, spoke in defense of Levkovitz, expressing that other people had a right to want to live in Ringwood, that Levkovitz keeps many of the trees on the properties he develops and that the borough desperately needs the ratables that the approximately $500,000 higher cost homes would provide.

Levkovitz has been a developer in the area for more than 34 years, first developing in the Wanaque area. “I did a lot of building in Wanaque, about 350 families live in my homes,” he says.

Of the present West Brook I and II developments, Lefkovitz says, “incidentally, I had a vision when I bought this property,” he says. “I wanted to build houses like (those in) Franklin Lakes, but for much less.”

A West Milford residents, Levkovitz owns 140 acres that borders his property that he says he could have subdivided into many lots, but has not because he does care about preserving space.
“I’m not building any more for money,” Lefkovitz says, “but because I love doing what I do.”

Skylands CLEAN, who has previously attended meetings on the proposed development, was unable to attend due to the scheduling conflict for their attorney and their environmental expert.

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