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Hopatcong board approves 10-foot playground fence, restores ADA parking for Elite Prep; parking plan deferred to May 5
Summary
The Hopatcong Planning Board approved a 10-foot fence around Elite Prep Academy’s playground and confirmed the originally approved ADA handicap parking, while deferring a detailed parking reconfiguration and school-bus placement to the board’s May 5 meeting.
The Hopatcong Planning Board on March 3 approved a 10-foot fence around the Elite Prep Academy playground and confirmed the school’s original, ADA-compliant handicap parking locations, while instructing the applicant to return with a revised parking exhibit showing placement of two full-size school buses.
Vern Heffley, representing Elite Prep Academy, told the board the requested changes are modest site adjustments aimed at safety and functionality. “We’re just making the property more functional for the current use,” Heffley said, describing three items on the application: a taller fence, formalizing daily parking for two full-size buses, and adding handicap spaces.
The board and the applicant’s architect, Kent Fox of Fox Architectural Design, focused discussion on where the buses are parked now and whether bus parking would consume spaces allotted for nearby condominium overflow. Fox said the buses currently occupy parallel spaces at the lower edge of the site and recommended restriping the lot specifically to designate bus parking so the buses fit within the parking geometry.
Board members raised ADA cross-slope concerns about relocating handicap spaces. The applicant agreed to return the handicap stalls to the originally approved locations and to correct pavement cross-slope so the spaces meet ADA standards, allowing the township’s engineer to sign off and move the site toward final certificate-of-occupancy compliance.
After clarifying fence materials and anti-climb specifications, the board voted to approve the 10-foot fence and the reinstatement of the originally approved handicap spaces, subject to engineer sign-off. The clerk recorded an affirmative roll call for the fence/handicap approval by members present (the motion passed with the board members who answered verbally in favor as listed on the record).
The board explicitly did not approve a final bus-parking layout. Instead it carried detailed parking reconfiguration — including an exhibit showing current on-site conditions, the number of regular parking spaces lost to bus parking and the proposed restriping — to the May 5 meeting. The applicant was directed to return with a revised site exhibit and engineering details before any formal approval of the bus-parking plan.
A vote on the fence and handicap stalls concluded the item; the applicant will return to complete the parking portion of the application at the next meeting.
