Site-Plan Changed

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Feb. 2, 2011)

PERTH AMBOY — The City Council voted unanimously last week to

administratively-concur with changes made by Middlesex Management LLC in their site-plan

for Phase 3A of Harbortown Terrace to shift six buildings with 91 residenti

al units forward to permit public-safety vehicles to go behind them.

The Resolution was moved by Councilman William Petrick, seconded by

Councilman Kenneth Gonzalez and adopted 5-0.

Harbortown Terrace was the scene of a Dec. 19 fire that destroyed a 32-unit

building and displaced over 100 residents.

“This was the subject of a meeting with Middlesex Management last week,”

Business Administrator Gregory Fehrenbach told Council members during the

Caucus session two days earlier. “The Fire Chief (David Volk) asked them to

give some consideration to changes in their plan for the buildings between High

Street and the railroad tracks.

“In looking-at the plan, the Chief noticed little access to the rear

portion of the buildings and suggested that they shift the rear section forward to

create a fire-lane to give firetrucks an opportunity to get-behind it,”

Fehrenbach said. “That change would also provide police with better access to

the property.”

He noted that by the Council’s adoption of a concurring Resolution, the

change could be implemented with “no need for additional variances.”

Fehrenbach pointed out that “work is already done by the original plan,”

so “the developer would have to demolish what’s there to reconfigure it.”

“I predict that once this is built, a lot of kids will jump-over the

(retaining) wall,” Councilman Fernando Gonzalez said at that time. “You’re

encouraging the kids to take that shortcut.”

Fehrenbach emphasized that the agreement was “not something being-done

behind-closed-doors,” and that the four-foot-high wall was in the original plan.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved in the negotiation,” Petrick, a

former Volunteer Fire Chief, said.

“It was a good initiative on all their parts,” Fehrenbach said.

“That area is pretty-much covered by (railroad) tracks,” Councilman Joel

Pabon Jr. said.

An item of “Correspondence” dated Jan. 13 on the Council’s meeting-agenda

last week indicated that the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has

concluded that “the building design would have met the 1993 BOCA National

Building Code.”