The agenda of the Pumpton League Zoning Board of Adjustments, April 22nd, 2025. The following is the agenda of the regular minutes of the Pumpton Lake Zoning Board of Adjustments. The meeting is to be held in the municipal building, 25 LX Avenue on Tuesday, April 22nd,
2025, beginning at 8:00 p.m. A written advance notice as required by NJSA 1074-1 has been provided of this meeting at least 48 hours in advance of today given the time, date, and location, and
to the extent known at the time of the agenda of this meeting. Such note is stated that formal action may or may not be taken. This meeting will be video recorded and will be broadcast for later viewing for the public. The notice was
posted on the bulletin board outside of the offices of the municipal clerk reserved for this and other similar announcements provided to the suburban trends the newspaper designated by the council and planning board to receive such notices and file with the burough
clerk. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please.
Mr. Han, here. Mr. Abate here. Miss Curran will be absent tonight. Mr. Cross here. Miss Berntock. Okay. Mr. Rowan here. Mr. B here. Mr. Fagula here. Mr. Devonte here.
Okay. We have Mayor Sarah and uh Mr. Brewer. And we also have tonight Chris uh Miss Kristen Russell from Cers Engineering. Okay. uh minutes uh regular minutes for March 25th, 2025. Everyone had an
opportunity to read those minutes. Are there any corrections? See that? I have none. Can I get a motion to accept those minutes? I'll make a motion that we accept the minutes. Second written. Roll call, please. Second, please. Abate. Mr. Bait.
Okay. Mr. Hunt. Yes. Mr. Bait. Yes. Mr. Cross, yes. Uh, Mr. Rowan, yes. Mr. Big, yes. Mr. Figula, yes. And Mr. Devonte, yes.
Okay. Okay. Uh, approval of bills. Um, we have three from Collier and then we also have Falcon Services, legal services. I get a motion to accept those.
Motion to accept bills. Who is that? I'll second and bait. I mean, can I be? Yes. Okay. Mr. Hunt. Yes. Mr. Bait. Yes. Mr.
Cos. Yes. Mr. Rowan. Yes. Mr. B. Yes. Mr. Mr. Fagula. Yes. And Mr. Devonte. Yes. Okay. Uh we're going to move on to applications. VA25-06. Uh Mon MCI Mechanical Inc. 431
Ringwood Avenue. Mr. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Dames Lala L of Riverdale appearing on behalf of the I want to make uh a couple opening statements and then I'll call Mr. Manet
uh to testify. Number one, I had spoken to Mousaro and Mr. Polley about this. We are going to be asking to bifurcate this application and only deal tonight with the interpretation requests of the ordinance. Uh if that is granted,
obviously we're done. If not granted, we'll come back another day. I submitted a letter today uh giving some case law with regard to the interpretation and I think that with that and testimony of
the applicant, I'm hopeful and reasonably certain that the board is likely to agree. I certainly hope so. Uh this is a unit that was originally the uh accarti shop. It was transmission
shop, sire man, etc., etc. well known in town. Uh new owners of the building is now vacant. They have a tenant who wants to come in and is a licensed plumber. He's a licensed HVAC contractor. He's a licensed fire uh suppression system uh
installer among other licenses. Uh the argument here for us on the interpretation is simply that the allowed uses are any licensed professional unless otherwise uh prohibited and there is no prohibition
against any licensed professional within the ordinances themselves based upon and there's the only prohibition and that was certainly a concern of Mr. fully is having a lumber or building material yard and we want to make it amply
absolutely clear that there will be no outside storage. That includes no the intent not even to park vehicles on the lot overnight. Uh the applicants employees have their company vans and they take them home. So it'll be he'll
be operating his office. He'll be uh storing his materials there. is people will come in and pick things up and then go out to job sites. There was a mention of possible retail use that the only reason we had the
retail use uh as a part of discussion in the first place was because Mr. Coley indicated that retail use is a permitted use in the area. But since the real use of this is his office and his storage of his materials that are then taken off
site, we don't think it's needed to do the retail use and it's not certainly wanted by him in the first place. It was simply an accommodation to see if we can get the CO for Mr. Poly direct. With that, I'll call Ray Monet. Please raise your right hand,
state your name, spell your last, please. Raymond Manette. M O N B T. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you'll give this evening before this board will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So, help you got I do. Could you tell us what you do? I'm a commercial plumber and fire sprinklers
and HVAC. Uh, I've been doing it for I got my license, first one in '95 and I've been running my business since. Um, and specifically you were licensed as a master plumber. Yes. That's my majority of work is is doing plumbing. And you're
also licensed in HVAC. Yes. And also fire sprinklers. Yes. Among other things, right? You Well, I had a you know home the home uh builder's license, but that was it. Okay. What is your intent to do with the property? I just want to run my office,
which that entails just me figuring my plans, running my daily uh business out of there for, you know, figuring get my money in, money out. Um, and kind of getting all my materials. I get them all together for the guys. Um, they back in.
Some days they don't come for a week. Um, sometimes they'll come in and out a couple times a day. We load up the truck, they go to the job, and they do what they have to do. You know, it all depends if it's just one little fit out or a big job. And sometimes I don't see the guys for a month. Come, you know,
they'll run get their check maybe and then they're out. So, how long have you been at the location where you are currently? Uh, about 15 years in Munaki. And approximately, how does it compare in size to the uh 431 Redwood Avenue?
This one here is uh is is bigger, the one in Pmpton Lakes. It's a couple hundred square foot bigger. And have you had any problems in your current location in operating indoors? No, not at all. Is it your intent to have no outside storage whatsoever? No, I don't have any now. I can't have it where I
am. So, I have to make sure I keep everything inside anyways. So, you've been living with this for 15 years? Yeah, I've been living it with it like that. So, And how how many employees do you have? Uh, I have about six right now. And they have company vans or pickups? Uh, yeah, vans. And, uh, do
they take them home at night? Uh, yes. Is your intention to not even have any parking overnight? Yeah, I'm not going to keep them parked there and if some reason they have to, they'll be parked inside, you know, one, you know, but most of the time my guys take them all. You know, they don't want to drive their
own vehicles ever. Okay. Um, you're ready to occupy immediately? Yes. And what hours do you anticipate working? Uh, I mean I start I get in probably 6:30, you know, in the morning, say 600,00 6:30 and then I work probably
till 5:30, 6:00 at night. This is you yourself. This is me myself. What time do the employees come in to pick up stuff? Uh, they they'll probably start figure the earliest they'll be there is maybe 7, you know, to load up and that'll be it. Generally speaking, the
loading up will be indoors. Yes. Mhm. So you have two bays. It being an old radiator repair shop, it's got two bays big enough to fit your vans. Oh, yeah. We could drive in and out. No problem. And as a result of that, your intent is to do a loading of those vans indoors.
Yeah. I mean, we Yeah, we have to. I mean, we're going to be pulling in kind of loading everything up cuz they'll be on the shelves, all our stuff, and it'll just be that, you know, pretty easy to do that. Other than the pickup and uh of the materials uh by your employees, would you be the only person generally
working in the building? 90% of the time, yeah, I'll be the only one in there. And uh again, there had been some discussion at one point of possibly having a small retail uh part of the business. It's your intention not to have that at this point. I'd rather not.
You know, it it's simply to be your office and your storage area for your correct employ. I don't work weekends either. I try not to and um had a lot of years for that. I'm done. Plus, I live in Ringwood and I've been traveling down
to Munaki since 2000 and I kind of had enough. That's why this was perfect. It's only 15 minutes from home. Neighborhood around there is completely uh primarily commercial, right? where over Yeah. 431. Yep. And matter of
fact, in part of the same building, there's a auto shop. Yeah. The auto mechanic is right next door. And uh he's in the same building up the street at the corner. There's another plumbing contractor, HVAC contractor as well, right? Yeah, I believe so. Yes. Used to
be Ben Franklin Plumbing. Yeah, it was that place. Yeah. And that's really all I have for the testimony. What I'd like to do then is sum up. Like I said, this is about as simple an application as we've tried to make it. Uh under the in the letter that
I sent to you, there were a couple of cases that I wanted to refer to. State versus Gandhi 2011 NJ 161 and state versus Smith and 197 and NJ 225. The courts basically found that in order to determine the meaning of the statute of the ordinance to the extent possible by
looking at the plain language of the law makingaking body. Indeed, Prospero versus Gandhi at 183 MJ at 492 and 93 the court states if the language is ambiguous then the interpreter if the
language is not ambiguous then the interpretive interpretive process is over. What we have here is a situation where the ordinance specifically states that a uh any licensed professional can have his offices in the zone. It
specifically prohibits uh building and lumber yards. There is going to be no outside storage. So there is no concern about any yards. That even addresses the point of parking. And on top of that, you have the two garage
bays that are big enough to allow the variants to come in and load. You have the uh uh ability to park a vehicle there once in a while if necessary indoors, not outdoors. So, we submit that this would
be a uh permitted use. We ask the board to agree. I opened up Mr. Manette to question by the board. Um, I have a question in regards to you said you had six and coming in to load up. Uh, I have I have a total of four
vehicles all together. That's it. Okay. Um, I have other employees, but they're the helpers and they kind of go to the job on their own with their trucks or meet up, you know. And and you stated that the loading would pretty much primarily be done inside the building.
You know, right in the front, you know, is the front door, right? I I would, you know, how I have it set up, figures back right up, load it up, and send them on out, and that's it. You know, cuz I I would tend to believe also that
there would probably be some loading on the outside because of the nature of the product. And I'm not saying it would be a lot, but there was probably some activity outside as well. And just it it's probably minor, but there's probably some activity outside. very
minor. You know, if we're going to go, it's going to be, you know, if the guys come in, it's like I said, they come in, they talk, we go over something, look at a set of plans, go over it, they'll grab something, and and they're off. Okay. Cuz if they're there, they're not making any money. So, understood.
Okay. It's a question for um So, the apartment upstairs will be your office then. There will be no apartments or it'll be just strictly plumbing use or is this going to be the apartments are by you know there's other tenants that are upstairs you know so that doesn't change that doesn't change at all so
they'll be parking they have parking yeah they have their own spots that are there already that are you know for them that's it they have their spots he's simply taking over and you can confirm this right the fa space that was occupied by a carney so the right half of the first floor and
it's actually uh The repair business that's there now is going to stay. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, they have vehicles. He has Yeah, he has a couple vehicles that he pulls in and out. Most of the time he has them in. The owner is here as well
could testify that generally speaking, uh they park all their all their vehicles overnight inside as well. Again, I'm not familiar with the auto body shop, but my understanding is that they have limited parking overnight. In
any event, that's the existing use. We're simply trying to get the use for the U. I wouldn't know why there's any problem with parking there. Is there any reason like four or five spots after use, is it not? Yes, that's the
question. That's we say yes. That's my answer. He likes that answer. I like that answer a lot. I' I've always seen vehicles parked there for my entire life. Some pretty ugly ones besides as far as the body shop.
That's it. Okay. So, the farmers are there and the other tenant is there and you're occupying everything in the lower floor then. Um I like the L-shaped the mechanic. I don't know if you have the plan. He's takes like uh a third of it and I got the other two/3s, you know,
which kind of is a wraparound. So, I'll have the the back entrance way and then the off the street, you know, the one right hand side wraps around. Let me mark this is a one. Yeah. I believe Dave Quack Quackenbush's office has or his business has two bays. Correct. Yeah.
And that's it. Yeah, that's it. That's all he has on. That's the survey that this one. Yep. Yeah. Was it with the diagram of the uh inside? Mhm. So, Ray, can you tell tell us describe the inside of the building here? Yeah. I
mean, right, like I said, I I would be I want to put my office itself, you know, into the back and have my rack set up on the back wall, which would be, you know, lot seven say there. Um, and that's where all my fittings, my pipe, uh, my
tools, and, uh, everything would go into that back section. The back, uh, the front half would just be more of my smaller probably racks with, uh, all my traps and supply lines and all that
stuff coming in here. So, and the front left corner over here, that's that's the auto. Yeah, mechanic. Yeah. there. That's the mechanic on the on the left front side. So, basically all on the right there where that lot 97 is. That's
that's basically the parking all onto that right hand side where the tenants park and then that would be my parking. And then the mechanic, he has a bunch of the the front spots, you know, that come up to the street
and the loading and offloading of product that you're going to be needing to do your t your jobs that wouldn't have uh an issue with pulling in and offloading and then pulling back out. No, you know, whether it go to the back garage door, you know, whether we're we,
you know, could back up over there and load in or if we pull up into the middle there, you know, more than likely we'll probably, I don't know, see how it all works out. So, whichever, you know, is going to work out easier for getting one material or the other. That's where they'll park.
Okay. You know. Mhm. And these are smaller bands. These are the really tall ones. Yeah. These are just little, you know, very standard low little little pants cuz we do a lot of traveling. You know, I work all around New Jersey and like I said, most of the time my guys aren't even around. You know, they'll
come in, they'll go out, and then that's it. So, are you going to close the Munaki office? Yes, you are. Okay. God willing. Anybody else have any questions for the applicant?
Bill, would you like to Sure. I can comment. I can comment. I can summarize. So, the question before us today is whether or not this is a permitted use. Um, I'll just summarize for you some of what's in the in your municiponing code.
Um, this is located in the DBD2 zone and some of the uses that are relevant to their request that are permitted are garden centers and building supply establishment. Okay, I think we could potentially qualify them as a building supply establishment. Um, general
business and professional offices. He says he's going to have an office there. Um, and any and all licensed professional services except those specifically prohibited. And at the beginning of the testimony, um, we did learn that he is a licensed plumber,
among, I think, a few other things. Those are, um, uses that lend themselves to suggest that what he's asking for is permitted. I think that the reason that there some question was raised, um, by Mr. Foley
was that um, the DBD2 zone prohibits the following. One is lumber or building material yards and another is storage establishments including many storage.
Um, unfortunately for this board, these uses are not defined in your municipal zoning code, which is unfortunate, but using our general understanding of these types of uses and um my professional opinion is
that what is being proposed here is neither of those uses. I would say that a lumber or building material yard um evokes for one thing an outdoor type of use and also a much more intense kind
of like I don't even know um the words that I would use. But when you're looking at lumber piled high even indoors at like a Home Depot type of place, that's not what he's asking for, right? This is a small scale. he's servicing only his
employees who are then going out into the field um contractors are not coming here and loading up um for for large um construction jobs and it's indoors. Um and I also think that despite the fact that he's storing inventory there um any
retail establishment has some inventory storage um that doesn't make them um a mini storage or a storage establishment. So, in my planning opinion, um I would say that the prohibited uses that are
enumerated do not preclude this use from happening and that it could fall into one or a number of the permitted uses. Um, of course that's up to the board as to whether or not you agree with my interpretation, but with my experience with zoning codes and with definitions
and with filling in gaps where definitions don't exist, that's how I would um recommend the board. I that's that's how I think you should look at it and that's my opinion. Thank you. Okay. So, um I have no disagreement with
that. I think that they have presented it as a professional services. Um just for my I want you know and I agree they don't we're not defining everything but in our ordinance in the state statute it talk and
there's NJSA 14A they go through corporations and what who can and can undertake certain businesses and they have definitions one of them is professional service uh it means any type of professional service to the public which requires um renting a
service to obtain a license um and it includes includes examples and it says um personal services rendered by CPAs, architects, optometrists, engineers, land surveyors, land planners. So the state of New
Jersey recognizes professional services, something like a land surveyor, which you're not going to be doing in the property. You're going to have it offsite, but you run your office out of there, which seems to me it's not all just white collar stuff. It is things that you're doing offsite. So that you know you're not bound by with the state
of New Jersey's definition but the only definition I could find for professional services tends to agree seems to be falls within there and while there are several uses the one tiny thing that you ought to keep in mind is that um they're not here before for site plan and
they're going to if it is a permitted use they will go to sio if he says it doesn't need any new parking then they don't need site plan. I don't know if there's a difference in parking requirements for the various things. I think they'd ask for professional services. And so I think
what they are asking for is a motion um for this board to find that in fact the proposed use as described here would fall under uh professional services and would be a permitted use as stated in your ordinance. Okay. Thank
you. With that being said, can I have a motion? Um uh no. I have to open up to open up to the public. All right. I have to open this up to the public to ask questions of the applicant on his testimony.
Yes, ma'am. Michael Sarah, 41 Westlakes. I'm just going to ask a favor because I already said I heard the owners here going to be a new business, which I welcome and good luck on on the establishment. We are redoing that whole corner. There'll be a new building to your right and there'll be new apartment building to the back. So, we're trying to keep everything looking quality and
looking good, especially with new buildings coming in. Yeah. So, hope you would just keep that in mind as you're moving forward. You know, keep keep the outside of the building respectful and clean and move in. Then we should have no issues. Perfect. Yeah. No, I will. Believe me, I'm very uh been around a
long time. Very neat. So, I I can indicate as well to the owners who are here that they've already been in touch with Mr. Poland about getting permits to replace the fence. They're going to be painting the building and doing all that. It's already stuff. Good. Mhm.
Thank you. Is there anybody else from the public that would like to ask questions of the applicant on the testimony? That was given. There is none. So, I will close that session. Okay. Can I get a motion
from the board? I'll make a motion to be a motion motion to find that the use as proposed and described would fall within the definition of professional services and would be a committed use. Yes.
I thought you I always look for a legal advice and Rich is the second on that. Can I get a roll call, please? Okay. Mr. Hunt. Yes. Mr. Abate. Yes. Uh, Mr. Cross. Yes.
Uh, Mr. Rowan, yes. Mr. Be. Yes. Mr. Fabula. Yes. And Mr. Dvanti? Yes. Thank you very much. Greatly appreciate it. And by the way, Mr. Claus, I have a question. You're related to John Cos many many years ago. That's my
cousin. He was a classmate of mine. Say hello for me if you want. I haven't seen you since 8th grade. Ah. I have a question for you. Are you related to Ramul? Yeah,
how's he doing? Is he still with us? Oh, no. No, he passed away quite a while ago. How about So, Grace is your relative. Grace and and Arnold unfortunately passed. The only one who left is Selene. She's living up in New England. Uh and Jean's wife who died is
living out in the ground. But, uh yeah, my Jerry was my dad. Sam, Ronnie, and Grace. Yeah. Mhm. Great. Good luck. Good luck. Stop by, take a look when I'm all
set up. Got any questions or problems? Good. Good. We had a couple kids down in Atlantic City. So, yeah. It was a good season. So, thanks. said, but it's
okay. We're going to move on. Resolutions. We have none. Uh, new unfinished business. Everyone, please remember to do your financial disclosures. They are coming June the 30th. Okay. No jokes. Done. You will get
mine. Yes. No jokes with that. Okay. Very done, sir. Thank you. Nice. Good. Good. Okay. Public discussion. Open the public discussion up to anybody.
Um Mike C. Anything on open space? Uh there wasn't much carried over from the meeting back in March. Um there's a couple of updates. The Hersfield project is underway for the new
uh new playground. It's going Um the uh rat department is disappointed they didn't get all their changes to the building that they wanted. Okay. That's another story.
Um what about the bridge? How are they making out with the bridge down there? That's supposed to start in September, you told me. Maybe Mr. Shar can update us that. Was that next bridge? First park. Here park. Here parks built in this uh August. Yeah, August. Absolutely. If you notice, they put new
swings in already. Um, we're going to replace the house there uh after camp. It'll be a brand new hopefully this spring we'll put that I mean small and then the bridge. And then after that, the next glass thing would be a new walk path. So, that'll be a whole new park when we're all done.
Yeah. And the uh the bathroom is being upgraded to ADA codes. So, the D gave us a lot of problems with the building itself. We want them to make it a little bigger, put it upstairs. They wouldn't allow us. So, we're going to make one handicap bathroom, which is going to be a larger bathroom, and then keep the
other bathroom, but kind of cut the inside of the building. So, it'll be a larger building with upstairs storage downstairs. And the uh basketball courts being resurfaced. Yeah. Uh we have some extra money and we're asking Tilcon, who I think is going to help us, and they're going to
resurface that. Okay. Uh Maria said the uh Willow Field project is out to bid. Yep. And uh then the other business was Lakeside Park. Uh the pavilion is being um replaced. Joe,
how about the this swab? Cuz I know that that swab is right now. We're not touching that, but there's something, you know, we had engineers looked at it years ago and they thought we were going to dock boats. If we're not going to really use that property, they said we could just leave it as is. Um, we're we
are going to try to so we are re at some point removing all that fencing all the way down to the bridge and putting a new guardrail in and cutting the guard rail so you can walk into the park itself. Um, and that should happen in the next 6 months. Also, you know, when you take that fence down, it'll look much nicer
than park. Mhm. Mhm. Are they going to put like a new crosswalk in if they're they are? That's great. And the um the seasonal docks, the wood is rotted and they are kuda. I made that a priority because we you know we all know pumpkin.
We use those docks and unfortunately they started to sag and sank and no we can't fix them anymore. Now we didn't have it in our budget. Open space stepped in and said they can only pick up half the cost, 50% of the cost. So they're going to pick up 50% of the cost of the 25 to $30,000. The town's going
to pick up the other 50. We're voting on it tomorrow. Once we vote on it, we hope to have it in in a month. It's it's in stock because we all know those docks are used. So, right now, nobody's using those, right? And the other thing is that the people with the boats, they're they're using the other the kayak
launches and the the other walk um dock that's there to tie up their boats and that's going to be a mess that sooner we do that the better. Yeah. Yeah. Very close. And then I think that was it. They uh Maria had everybody in
and out in an hour. So nice. Oh, and they planted all the bowls. I think you were there, Steve. Yeah, we did some of the EPC did some of them. And then I did want to do a quick plug that uh we have the river cleaning cleanup coming up on May 4th. So that's uh a week from Sunday. So hopefully
everybody will get out there. Registration starts at 9:30 going till 1:30. Um I'm getting a I already ordered them, but some like six foot subs. got a three-foot veggie sub for those that don't like meat and uh cookies and stuff like that. So hopefully we get a nice crowd out there, make it a big like
community event. I see it posted all over Facebook. I keep posting. That's good. I'm pushing. Get to work. Absolutely. Anything else? I got one question in terms of our foot bridge that goes right behind uh Max. They just tore down that
Quansson hut after like 20 years. Is that town property now or It is now ours. Yes, we own that. Is that part of open space or is that for parking? No, we're using a small sitting park with just some benches there. We're waiting till they redo the bridge because we don't know where they're going to have
to stage the equipment. But all that's going to be sitting area to kind of if you're fishing, you can sit on the bench. Um that bridge will be replaced also probably a year from now with the same type of bridge. Problem over there, it's a little more difficult to put it in because when they drop it, it's one big piece. It's a big bridge and they
need to spin it the right direction with all the balls in the way. So they got everything taken out of them and they can't. That's a bridge that's used for transportation for the kids in school. So if you close that bridge, it's a long walk around if you don't take that bridge to get to school. So there's talk of the county might have to supply
busing or we might have to or somehow keep get around that. It's a long walk. Might have to walk. You got some for letting him walk. We will close the public session. I get
a motion for adjournment. Wait, hold on. Sorry. Okay. I'll second. All in favor? I thank you. That's a little more.