TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—Mayor Peter Calamari said “a breakdown in communication” led to a luxury home subdivision scoring preliminary major approval “by default” at the Planning Board reorganization meeting on Jan. 8.
There was no notice given to abutters in the two towns affected, no advertisement in the newspaper, and no public hearing toward approval.
Coming into sharp focus now are eight new Zone AAA single-family homes on approximately 9.3 acres at Wearimus Road and Gorga Place, near the Ho-Ho-Kus border.
The applicant is 34 Maple LLC, managed by Joseph G. Berardo of Alpine, Julie Anne Papatheodorou of River Vale, Joseph A. Berardo of North Bergen, and Jennifer M. Berardo of the Township of Washington.
34 Maple LLC is subdividing Block 1201 Lot 1 and Block 1101.01 Lot 5.01 into eight conforming lots, two of which would have access to Wearimus Road.
In order to provide access to the bulk of the lots, the owner is extending Gorga Place.
Because the Planning Board engineer—Paul Azzolina of Azzolina & Feury Engineering— did not report out the application, and the matter lay more than 45 days without generating a review letter, municipal land use law grants preliminary major approval automatically.
The township’s 16 abutters, living within 200 feet of the project, live on Gorga Place, Wearimus Road, Van Emburgh Avenue, and Washington Avenue. Ho-Ho-Kus’s four abutters live on Wearimus Road.
Asked Jan. 9 whether those abutters were notified of the application, a worker in the planning office said, “They were notified that it was approved.”
We reached out to residents on the abutter list. One, James Welch, a township attorney living on Washington Avenue, echoed others we spoke with in saying our call was the first they’d heard about it.
“I’m very worried about it, but I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Questions for Azzolina
Calamari, who sits on the Planning Board but was absent from the Jan. 8 meeting, told Pascack Press on Jan. 15 that he retains confidence in his board engineer.
Azzolina was retained by majority vote at the Planning Board’s reorganization meeting Jan. 8, as was Planning Board Secretary Barbara Coleman.
Planning Board Chairman Brian Murphy retained his leadership post by wide acclaim.
He has yet to acknowledge a request for comment on the default approval. Azzolina, likewise, did not return calls seeking comment.
Asked for an explanation, Calamari told Pascack Press, “Engineer Azzolina had performed his full review of the project, and when he learned of the time lapse he immediately brought it to the attention of the Planning Board.”
The approval by roll call followed a closed executive session of the Planning Board, which was held under the heading of “possible litigation.”
“We have also put a check and balance into effect so this can’t happen again,” he said.
Calamari added, “It should be noted that the proposed subdivision design is fully conforming; there are no variances required.”
He said aspects of the proposed design such as stormwater management and wastewater issues were “reviewed at the time of submittal and were determined to be substantially complete, with only minor revisions/supplements being required at this time.”
The mayor said the items were discussed with the applicant’s professionals.
Planning Board Vice Chair Tom Sears told Pascack Press on Jan. 17, “When you have such a large construction, with eight homes, it’s really hard to say ‘My bad.’ It really is.”
He said the board will now have a monthly report from the planning department “so that this… error will not happen again, I’ll put it that way.”
DeSena speaks out
Newly seated Planning Board member Michael DeSena, Calamari’s council representative, told Pascack Press, “I was disheartened at my first Planning Board meeting by this situation.”
DeSena, a civil engineer, explained that per state code, “After 45 days if we don’t issue any review letter it automatically gets approved. So in June 2018 this was submitted and nothing was ever done with it, so therefore they got an automatic approval.”
DeSena said the application was submitted to the Planning Board secretary, adding, “The Planning Board never saw it. The Planning Board has never seen the application. They saw it for the first time when they saw it was approved.”
There were no members of the public at the meeting, and there were no representatives of the developer.
“They didn’t have to [appear],” DeSena said.
Land owner touted work with town engineer
Reached on Jan. 16, Joseph G. Berardo, majority owner of 34 Maple LLC, told Pascack Press, “There was a lot of back and forth [with] engineers, this has been [in the] planning for years; it’s not off the top of somebody’s head and you get something approved.”
He added, “We followed 100% the laws and the procedures of the town. I know—I’ve been in business for 50 years—we maintain our commitment to what we’re doing.”
He also said, “I think this is an exceptional good thing for the town. I think it’s going to be very nice. A beautiful addition, a good addition to the town.”
He said he believes his daughter is going to live there.
“We do this for a living. We’ve been doing this for years,” he said.
He referred follow-up questions to his attorney, who then did not call back by press time. We are not alleging any wrongdoing on the applicant’s part.
Public will see house plans
Next steps for the project, according to Calamari:
— The applicant must appear before the Planning Board to obtain final major subdivision approval.
DeSena said, “That’s just a formality. This one [preliminary major approval] gets him through the hurdle. If you don’t get preliminary you don’t get final. The final is easier to get than the preliminary.”
— The applicant must obtain a major soil moving permit. Tree removal and any other issues that may come to light may be discussed at that time.
— A public hearing shall be conducted on the application as well as at any date on which each of the eight lots created by subdivision shall be developed with single family homes.
To that, DeSena said, “What they’re forgetting is that we’re creating eight new single-family lots and the public and the neighbors never got any chance to voice their opinion about it.”
Invoices went unpaid
Meanwhile, Azzolina might still be owed money from the township. Some members of the Township Council have been awaiting a long-promised reconciliation of payments the township owed or owes Azzolina.
In April 2019 then-Council President Michael DeSena said it was “disgusting” that former township engineer Azzolina had not been made whole after he presented the township with a stack of unpaid invoices dating to 2005 that in 2018, when they came to light, stood at $131,680.75.
He had been presenting bills monthly for years, and these evidently were largely not honored. Councilmen as recently as Dec. 30, 2019 said the reconciliation was still not available for them to review.
For more, see Township Funds $10K to Probe Finances, April 12, 2019.
