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Planning Board approves minor subdivision for local farmer with conditions tied to stream‑corridor easement and stormwater review
Summary
The board approved Mark Fale’s minor subdivision to create a 12.257‑acre buildable lot and a smaller severed lot from Block 191 Lot 4, subject to conditions including hedgerow maintenance, landscape plan, engineered stormwater calculations at building permit, and review if a driveway in the stream corridor is later developed.
The Montgomery Township Planning Board approved a minor subdivision on Aug. 12 for farmer Mark Fale, who sought to split Block 191 Lot 4 (1932 Route 206) into two parcels, including a proposed Lot 4.1 of 12.257 acres. The applicant said the severed 12.257‑acre lot is under contract for a single‑family home and that remaining acreage will remain in agricultural use.
"Selling that piece off makes sense to us and will help us keep the home farm here for a while," Mark Fale told the board, describing long family ties to the property and the farm’s reduced commercial footprint since he retired.
Attorney Ryan Kennedy and engineering witness Pam Matthews said the change restores a 1993 conservation/home‑site envelope and preserves an existing public access easement; the driveway access described in the easement is located inside the township’s mapped stream corridor. Board engineering counsel said any actual construction in the stream corridor would require a variance and a review by the zoning board of adjustment when and if development is proposed. "If the planning board were to approve the subdivision tonight and the applicant didn't actually request that variance, then it would be a separate application," a board member said; another consultant advised that the driveway is a pre‑existing access point and moving it would be difficult.
Approval was conditioned on compliance with planner and engineer comments, waiver or decision by the board on sidewalk requirements (the board discussed hedgerow preservation on Route 206 and the practical difficulty of adding sidewalks there), submission of engineered grading and stormwater calculations at the building permit stage, and an approved landscape plan reviewed by the township landscape architect. The board also recorded a condition that the property owner maintain the existing hedgerow (noting those trees lie largely in the state's right of way and that the state retains certain responsibilities).
The motion to approve passed with an affirmative roll call. The approval preserves farmland boundaries and the pedestrian‑access easement while allowing the sale of the subdivided residential lot; any future driveway construction in the stream corridor would require separate variance review and state DEP approvals.
