Debate over Local Option Zoning took up a majority of this week’s Borough Assembly meeting, however the finale was hard to decipher.
The first ordinance which aimed to implement LOZ over the Fairfield residential properties was passed but amended to exclude lots C, D, and E which are owned by businessman Sean Cude.
Best: “They are out of the zone, they are unrestricted in a rural area and he’ll proceed with his conditional use permit.”
That was Planning Director Max Best who was also at the meeting to help both the public and assembly follow what was happening as this issue arose from months of dispute.
Many of the neighbors were there to testify in support of the local option zoning which would have prohibited Cude from further developing a gravel pit on those three tracts.
The second ordinance targeted the Ravenwood residential properties and would have implemented a LOZ over the existing gravel pit that Cude owns, not on the other three tracts.
Assembly Member Mako Haggerty detailed the Borough Planning Commission’s recommendation.
Haggerty: “Recommended approval with the removal of tracts A2A, A2, and lot 1A and as I understand it this was by majority consent.”
That ordinance passed but was amended to exclude Cude’s gravel pit.
Based on public testimony, borough administrators said the neighbors’ concerns over the proximity of excavation to existing wells will be investigated.