Zoning Board application denies units Applicant sought 90 age-restricted units off Inman Ave. BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer After approximately three hours, the Woodbridge Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the hotly contested Mase Land Co.'s application last week to build 90 age-restricted units on the current Rahway Bus Co. site on Inman Avenue at the intersection of Delaware Avenue. The applicant appeared before the board on Sept. 6 for the fourth time since September 2006, with changes made to the number of proposed units, number of buildings, and the height of the buildings. Board member Frank D'Arcio made a motion to deny the application by Mase Land Co. of East Brunswick just after 11 p.m. "My reason to deny the application is due to the detrimental height of the buildings to the surrounding neighborhood and the negative effects the application has on traffic," he said. The board voted 5-2 against the application, which brought applause from over 70 Colonia residents who came to the meeting. Steven J. Tripp, the applicant's attorney, said he had no comment on the board's decision. The applicant proposed to remove all buildings from the property (two residential dwellings and the Rahway Bus Co. facility) and construct an age-restricted 90-unit residential housing complex with seven multi-unit buildings. One building was proposed to contain eight units, three buildings were to contain 10 units, two buildings were to contain 12 units, and one building would contain 28 units. The residential buildings would range from two to four stories, and each dwelling unit would have a garage. A 2,014-square-foot central club house, a swimming pool and 46 common-area parking spaces were also proposed. The tract is located in the B-1 Neighborhood Business Zone and the R-7.5 High-Density Single- Family Residential Zone and has frontage on Inman Avenue. The site also contains a 20-foot-wide drainage easement and a tract of wetlands, both present on the southern portion of the site. The applicant revised the application several times to reduce the number of units from 162 to 100 and then to 90, and reduced the number of buildings from nine to seven. The arrangement of the proposed buildings was revised to shift buildings farther away from the Melody Drive residential area, and the height of the buildings was redesigned so that a portion of three buildings were one story lower to the west side of the site. Tripp told the board before they made their decision to think of the future of the site. "Obviously the Rahway Bus Company wants to sell the site," said Tripp. "You have to look at what could be developed on the site, not look at a vacuum." Joe Burgis, the applicant's planner, testified that the application, with its current zoning (retail and office buildings), would have a rateable value of $19 million, whereas the proposed application with residential zoning could bring in as much as $29.2 million. Burgis said the application's total cost revenue impact would be $578,000, which means the municipality would receive $117,000 and the school district would receive $348,000 each year from the 90-unit housing complex. Burgis said the cost revenue impact total of an office building would be $376,000, which means the municipality would receive $76,200 and the school district would receive $226,000 from the office building. Board Chairman Bernard McLaughlin voted in favor of the application. "There are some legitimate concerns by the residents," he said. "However, the board has to make a decision that would affect the site 20 to 30 to 40 years from now. Change is inevitable." George Vassiliades, who came to the meeting on behalf of all the senior citizen organizations in Colonia, said they were in favor of the development; however, many residents who came to the meeting as part of the Concerned Citizens of Colonia voiced their concerns about traffic and flooding problems. "This project does not give us a quality of life," said Joe Rokose, who lives on Melody Drive. "Traffic is horrendous." Rokose said they have collected over 600 signatures against the project. Randall Voinier, the applicant's traffic engineer, testified that he said the housing complex would not have a significant impact on the Inman Avenue traffic. Voinier said that during morning and evening rush hours, he found that on average there would be 16 cars coming in and out of the complex, which brought laughter from the crowd. Residents said they also already experienced flooding in their homes, and the 90- unit complex would cause more flooding; however, the applicant's officials refuted that, saying that it would not cause any more flooding than what the residents already experience.