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Board carries boathouse and garage applications to July 7 after citing runoff and garage-placement concerns
Summary
The Planning Board continued applications for boathouse rehabilitation and a proposed garage at adjacent properties (52 and 54 West) and asked the applicant to return with a smaller garage option or reconfiguration and pervious-paver details to reduce runoff; the hearing was carried to July 7.
Hopatcong’s Planning Board carried two related shoreline-area applications to its July 7 meeting after an extended discussion about lot constraints, driveway sight lines, property lines, stormwater runoff and garage placement.
For 52 West, the applicant described a rehabilitation of an existing boathouse with a small rear expansion (about 4 feet, roughly 70 square feet) and a roof change to a flat profile that does not increase building height. The board accepted that work on the boathouse is largely rehabilitative, but members flagged lot-size and coverage issues for the record.
The neighboring 54 West application proposed a two-car garage at the upper end of a narrow, steep lot plus brick-paved terraces and retaining-wall work. Multiple members objected that a two-car garage sited close to property lines would worsen an already constrained situation: comments included that the proposal would be "taking a bad situation and making it worse" and that a single-car option or relocation toward the roadway might be more appropriate.
Board members also pressed the applicant to address impervious coverage and stormwater management; several suggested pervious pavers, detention under the driveway, or revised materials that would reduce runoff. The applicant agreed to examine pervious-paver products and to consider a reduced-width garage.
Because the board and applicant had not yet resolved garage layout and runoff mitigation, members voted to carry the applications to the next available meeting on July 7 and asked for revised drawings showing alternatives (smaller garage, repositioned garage or combined lots if the applicant so chooses) and a specification for pervious pavers or equivalent stormwater measures.
