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ROTTERDAM
Project irritates town planners
Apartments off West Campbell marked by shifts from plans
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

   After more than four years of wrangling over a 64-unit apartment complex near the town’s sewage treatment plant, town Planning Commission members are taking a harder approach in the final stage of the project.
   Developers David Kazda and Gene Vellano were hoping to be granted certificates of occupancy from the town for two of the six buildings of the Wellington Gardens development. It is on an 8.4 acre parcel off West Campbell Road. But because the actual construction deviated from the original approved site plan, town officials declined to issue the certificate without the Planning Commission reviewing changes.
   Commission members Tuesday went over a list of a dozen items compiled by the town’s engineer. These items included a lack of an underground sprinkler system, types of street and building lighting, vinyl shielding for a pair of dumpsters rather than a proposed brick enclosure, and missing storm water management fencing.
   In some cases, town officials agreed to give the developers time to correct the work, while in others immediate changes were ordered. The commission asked the town’s Public Works Department to tally the cost of completing these changes and ordered the developers to place this amount — estimated by the developers at more than $38,000 — into escrow until the property meets the final site plan approval.
   “We want to make it is very clear to developers that they will adhere to their final site plan,” commission Chairman Laurence DiLallo said.
   The developers were also told to produce a written waiver they were ordered to have prospective tenants sign, as was stipulated in the initial project approval. After nearly two years of argument, the developers compromised with the commission, agreeing that any tenant upset by the odor of the nearby wastewater treatment plant would be automatically released from their lease; all tenants would be required to sign a statement acknowledging the odors could pose problems.
   The recent changes are among a host of modifications the developers made to the plans since first receiving approval for the development in April 2005. The developers’ repeated changes from the site plan rankled some members of the commission, who worry about a dangerous precedent.
   “The applicant has not shown due diligence on this project,” said Robert Godlewski, a veteran commission member and councilman-elect, who voted against approving the most recent site plan changes. “I’ll be following this project very closely at my new charge with the town.”
   Godlewski was also bothered by indications the developers had already leased space in the two completed buildings without first receiving a certificate of occupancy. No confirmation of this was available.
   Similarly, commission member Tom Yuille expressed disappointment with the project. He said the apparent lack of progress with other deadlines set by the commission had placed the developers in a bad light.
   “There are too many thing that have gone wrong here,” he said. “I’m fed up at seeing this project.”