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Planning Board Approves Morristown Motorlink Parking-lot Upgrade, Allows Impervious-coverage Variance
Summary
The Planning Board of Morris Township granted amended site-plan approval to Morristown Motorlink on April 7, approving paving, a sidewalk connection and lighting while granting a variance to raise impervious coverage to 82.9% and two design waivers with conditions.
The Planning Board of Morris Township on April 7 approved Morristown Motorlink’s plan to pave an existing gravel vehicle storage area, add a 6-foot sidewalk connecting to a previously approved stairway and install lighting and an underground stormwater infiltration facility at 169–171 Ridgetale Avenue.
The approval included a variance to raise the lot’s impervious coverage from the existing 79.4% to 82.9% (the ordinance permits 75%), and two design waivers: one from the ordinance requiring parking-area landscaping and one from the requirement to mark parking stalls and drive aisles. The board approved the application subject to several stipulations, including on-site vegetation (hardy shrubs or deep-rooted grasses), post-construction adjustment or shielding of lights if necessary, and a dimming schedule for security lighting to be set with the township engineer.
Why it matters: The project converts a gravel area used to store dealer vehicles into a paved, better-lit, and graded surface with underground stormwater controls. Board members and professional witnesses said the work will improve drainage, pedestrian access to an adjacent Subaru service center and site safety, but it increases the parcel’s impervious surface and reduces on-site vegetation.
Applicant testimony and board findings John Hansen, a licensed professional engineer and planner who has worked on the Brower family properties for two decades, testified that the subject property is two lots (Lots 6 and 7, Block 10104) totaling about 265,080 square feet in the I-21 Industrial Zone and that car dealerships are a permitted use. Hansen said the area proposed for paving is currently a gravel storage lot used only for employee parking and vehicle storage and that the work would include a 6-inch vertical concrete curb, a steel guide rail, a 6-foot sidewalk to connect to the previously approved stairway and an underground infiltration basin tied into the existing storm system.
James Kaiser, the project’s licensed professional engineer, described the stormwater work as a minor stormwater development designed to maintain existing drainage patterns while directing runoff to a proposed underground infiltration basin. Kaiser said the basin is sized to discharge to the existing inlet and that the drainage design was submitted to the township engineer for review.
On landscaping and markings, Hansen and counsel said the applicant requested waivers because the area functions as vehicle storage rather than customer parking. Hansen agreed to work with board professionals to identify locations elsewhere on the property for hardy shrubs or native grasses to reduce erosion and add vegetation.
Board stipulations and vote The board’s approval included three explicit stipulations recorded during the motion: (1) post-construction adjustment or shielding of lighting fixtures if the township engineer deems it necessary, (2) a dimming schedule for lights (board discussion suggested approximately 9 p.m. as a baseline, with final percentage and timing determined by the township engineer and applicant), and (3) installation of selected vegetation (ornamental shrubs or deep-rooted grasses) in locations approved by the board planner and engineer to address erosion and visual concerns.
The motion to approve (motion text read into the record) carried on a roll-call vote with the members listed in the minutes voting in favor (see actions).
