Knoll Gardens owner seeks formal approval for reorganized maintenance yard; board continues case to March 3

Knoll Manor Associates asked the Parsippany-Troy Hills Planning Board on Jan. 13 to approve a revised layout and cleanup plan for a maintenance yard that has served the Knoll Gardens apartment complex for about 40 years.

Attorney Mark Rothberg, representing Knoll Manor Associates, described plans that would reorganize the yard into distinct zones for dumpsters, masonry storage, material stockpiles and a temporary staging area for appliances and similar items. The applicant also proposed compacted gravel surfacing, a low segmental retaining wall and new plantings and a wooden “shadow-box” fence to screen the yard from nearby homes.

The board’s planner and engineer said the applicant’s revisions are an improvement but left multiple implementation questions. Andrew Pangiano, the board engineer, asked the applicant to quantify and physically delineate storage areas so code enforcement could monitor compliance and to consider concrete pads where roll-off containers will be loaded and unloaded to reduce gravel damage. Pangiano also raised concerns about sediment control into a proposed inlet at the northeast corner and recommended measures to trap sediment.

Rothberg said the applicant had reduced the yard footprint from earlier proposals and that the revised plan depicts six dumpster locations (the site presently shows four), a masonry area at the north end and material stockpiles at the east. He said stockpiles would typically be small — roughly three feet high — and that material-handling equipment would be compact loaders or similar machinery.

Board members and professionals pressed the applicant to tighten several details: set a fixed width for the storage/stockpile area so the plan is enforceable, consider concrete pads where heavy loading will occur, clarify the number of dumpsters to be stored, and involve the township forester to review invasive species and recommend replacement trees where needed.

Rothberg said the applicant would incorporate the board’s comments. The applicant also acknowledged the site would require soil-erosion measures and a Morris County Soil Conservation District filing for the disturbance (the application notes nearly 21,000 square feet of disturbance on the erosion plan).

After extensive discussion and questions about landscaping buffers, the board voted to continue the application to the board’s March 3 meeting to allow the applicant time to revise plans and address engineering and landscaping comments. The applicant’s counsel said the continued submission would include revised delineation of stockpile/temporary staging areas, revised circulation/turning dimensions if needed, an updated planting plan coordinated with the township forester, and responses to the township engineer’s January comment letter.

The continuation was announced as a no-further-notice carry; the applicant will appear at the March 3 meeting to present revised plans.

The board’s discussion made clear ongoing concerns about visual and physical buffering for adjacent single-family lots and the need for enforceable, dimensioned plan elements to prevent the yard from reverting to a scattered storage area.

Questions that remain include exact dumpster count and placement, the precise dimensions of the stockpile area, whether concrete pads will be required for roll-off use, and whether the proposed plantings and fence will satisfy the ordinance’s minimum landscape-width standard.

The applicant agreed to address those topics and return on March 3 for further hearing and possible final action.