August 21, 2025, Regular Meeting

The house is placed at the front yard to try to minimize the amount of disturbance on the property and the steep slopes. The applicant is proposing retaining walls along the side and the rear of the property and also along the driveway entering the property due to the steep slope. A portion of the existing retaining wall in the right-of-way would need to be removed to accommodate the driveway entrance for this property. The variances that the applicant is seeking for this project is a lot area. The effective lot area is 2,491. The minimum lot area per unit is | per 80,000. The applicant is seeking a variance for 1 per 2,491 square feet. The minimum side yard is 25 feet. Applicant is seeking a variance of 11.4. The minimum combined side yard required is 50 feet. Applicant is seeking 26.5. Minimum floor area is 3,000 square feet. Applicant is seeking 2,689 square feet. The building coverage and the lot coverage also is calculated by the effective lot area which is encumbered by the steep slopes as well. The building coverage being proposed is 64% and the maximum lot coverage being proposed is 111.6. Mr. Furao noted that for those two variances, if they were to calculate it for the entire actual lot area, it would actually be under the maximum required if they were to take the actual full lot area. Mr. Endler asked Mr. Furao to go through the tree removal. Mr. Furao testified they are removing 11 trees on their property. Mr. Endler asked Mr. Furao to explain the landscaping plan to make up for the tree removals. Mr. Furao testified that right now they are not proposing any trees to accomunodate the tree removal. The site is constrained, so there's not many locations to put trees. The retaining walls are placed at the rear of the lot and the side of the lot. They are also seeking a variance for the retaining wall height, which is only allowed to be 6 feet in height, but due to the steep slopes on the property, they are having a variety of retaining wall heights. At its maximum, they're going almost close to 20 feet high in the rear. Mr. Endler asked Mr. Furao to clarify about the lot size is actually 14,000, but the effective size is 2,000. Mr. Furao testified that for the steep slope ordinance and the ordinance of West Orange, the effective lot area has to be calculated based on the site constraints and in this particular site constraint, steep

o testified that for the steep slope ordinance and the ordinance of West Orange, the effective lot area has to be calculated based on the site constraints and in this particular site constraint, steep slopes. West Orange provides an adjustment factor for the slope ranges on the property. It was calculated on sheet two, and it totaled into 2,491. For the ordinance, the maximum building coverage, the maximum lot coverage, and the lot area all have to be calculated by the effective lot area.