Montgomery zoning board grants variances for single-family home on undersized Bellemeade lot

The Montgomery Township Zoning Board on July 22 approved bulk variances and a set of waivers allowing AG Home Builders LLC to build a single-family dwelling on a consolidated, undersized lot at 323 Bellemeade (Route 601).

The board granted four C-1 hardship variances for lot area, lot frontage, lot width and lot depth along with exceptions to sidewalk and standard street-tree requirements, and two stormwater-location/setback exceptions (placing a porous driveway system under the driveway and reducing a required 25-foot setback to 10 feet in specified locations). The motion included conditions: recorded notes or plan revisions to abandon the existing well and septic serving the old on-site frame structure, compliance with the July 16 board-engineer report and related planner memos, a filed septic-reservation restriction for the reserve area, and township-engineer review and approval for up to 350 cubic yards of imported fill.

Why it matters: the board’s decision lets the applicant move forward with construction on a lot that is smaller than ordinance standards while attaching conditions intended to protect public health, manage stormwater risk and limit impacts on nearby wetlands and habitat. The approval also clarifies how the board will balance state-level environmental controls with locally enforceable restrictions.

Michael Ford, a licensed professional engineer and planner with Van Cleef Engineering Associates who testified for the applicant, said the revised plan removes an old frame structure and its remnants of a cesspool, connects the house to public water and proposes an advanced-treatment septic system that has conditional approval from the township health department. "We have, gained, I'll say conditional approval from the health department for the proposed septic system," Ford told the board, and he agreed to add a plan note requiring abandonment of the existing well and septic serving the frame structure.

Board members and the applicant also discussed open-space staff recommendations, including a planner memo that sketched two areas on the property: a lower-left triangle tied to wetlands and buffers and an upper-right area flagged by state mapping as possible habitat for northern long-eared and little brown bats. The board's professionals recommended a timing restriction on tree clearing to avoid bat mating season rather than a perpetually recorded conservation deed restriction for the upper-right area; the applicant agreed to the timing restriction. The applicant objected to imposing a conservation easement on the lower-left wetland buffer, arguing state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) oversight and the fluid nature of wetland boundaries made a permanent deed restriction unduly burdensome. The board discussed enforcement tradeoffs — DEP enforcement versus local enforcement via a recorded restriction — and declined to require a county-recorded conservation deed for the upper-right bat area while leaving the lower-left area to the board's discretion under the record's conditions.

The board also agreed that standard streetscape requirements would be relaxed because installing a sidewalk and standard in-row street trees along this rural county road would disturb existing, mature vegetation. Ford said the applicant will preserve existing vegetation where possible and add plantings in nontraditional locations to provide screening.

Professional-memo compliance and limited import fill: the applicant confirmed it would satisfy all comments in the board-engineer (07/16/2025) and planner memos (07/16–07/17/2025), accept lighting recommendations (no greater than 2,700K color temperature) and stake disturbance limits in the field. The board adopted a condition allowing up to 350 cubic yards of imported fill for site grading subject to review and approval by the township engineer.

Vote and next steps: a motion to grant the application with the enumerated conditions carried on roll call. The motion was recorded as moved and seconded on the record; recorded 'yes' votes called on the roll included Musovsky, Wood, Verbanski, Delenti and Rosenthal. The resolution will note the conditions discussed on the record and the applicant must submit required plan revisions and supporting agency approvals (Somerset-Union Soil Conservation District recertifications, county access permit, and the health-department documentation) before permits proceed.

The board approved the meeting minutes from June 24, announced future meeting dates and adjourned at about 8:30 p.m.