Township Moving Forward With Vacation of Streets

With the application for three houses to be built off Somerville Road approved pending the vacation of nearby streets, the council introduced an ordinance at the May 6 meeting that would allow for the closing of portions of Plainfield, Brunswick and Dunellen avenues.

The planning board previously approved an application from Genova Built LLC for a subdivision with three new homes. That approval is pending approval from the council for the building of a new road and vacation of the others.

According to Genova Built president Thomas Genova, the vacation of the streets is necessary in order to ensure that the properties comply with township regulations on lot sizes. If the vacation of the streets is not approved, the application will require variances for smaller lot sizes than are normally mandated.

“The application was predicated on the vacation of certain streets because, without that, he would have needed a variance,” township Administrator James Naples said.

The ordinance presented to the council would allow for the vacation of part of Plainfield and Brunswick avenues, as well as the complete vacation of Dunellen Avenue.

These streets are considered paper streets, meaning they are unimproved and mainly unused.

Naples said the only question had been whether there would be any negative impacts from these vacations on the adjacent property owners.

Township engineer Robert Bogart said that both he and township planner Scarlett Doyle have determined that there are no negative impacts.

And all the additional land gleaned from the vacation of these roads will be split between the new subdivisions and the adjacent property owners.

The council unanimously approved the introduction of the ordinance. Public hearing will be held May 20.

The council also approved a resolution to name a street that Genova Built will be constructing as part of this subdivision Harrison Court.

This new street will be over a portion of the bed of the former Plainfield Avenue.

Harrison Court will honor Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, but is not on the list of possible street names maintained by the planning board.

The council unanimously approved the naming of the street.