Elar Partners, LLC plans to build six new townhouses at a former motel site.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE – Members of the Planning Board Sept. 29 voted down 4-3 an application requesting a major subdivision with a D variance and an estimated 37 C variances needed to change the type of ownership at a development project currently under construction at 9711 Atlantic Ave. The developer, Elar Partners LLC, received all the necessary approvals last October to erect six three-story townhouse condominium units at the former Sea Winds motel.
Elar Partners purchased the 19 individually owned one bedroom units, which was demolished to build six townhouses with understory garages and parking for four vehicles per unit while 2.5 parking spaces are required. Three units will face Atlantic Avenue and three units will face Pacific Avenue.
The applicant, represented by attorney Chris Baylinson, was back before the board to request a change of ownership from condominiums to fee-simple townhouses, which Baylinson said would make the homes easier to sell and would increase their assessed valuation.
Although the building units would remain the same as originally approved, the change in ownership would require a D variance and require “a host of variances” because changing they type of ownership would render all six lots undersized, the applicant’s planner, Arthur W. Ponzio of Ponzio Associates of Atlantic City, said.
“It’s 100% identical to what the board has already approved,” Ponzio said.
When he voted no, board member Mike Richmond said he wouldn’t be able to face the public if he voted to approve 37 variances.
“I can’t face people when we deny somebody for a foot of height and then say we gave these people 37 variances,” he said.
Baylinson said the footprint of the development would not change.
“Tonight, we are just asking to strike four lines on that property to create individual lots,” which was more common years ago, Baylinson said. “Condo associations deter some buyers. This is an opportunity to create six lots and make it easier to sell these units.”
Although he voted in favor of the application, Planning Board Chairman Richard Patterson said ease of sale and assessed valuation are not issues that the board can consider when reviewing applications.
“Getting more money is not a reason to grant a variance,” Patterson said.
Before the case was presented, City Planner Roger McLarnon recommended that the developer establish a homeowners’ association to regulate the look of the exterior of the buildings and maintain architectural controls for all six units.
Board members agreed that, like a condominium association, a homeowners’ association for fee simple ownership would allow the owners to share in the cost of replacing the shared roof in future years and cover the shared cost of flood insurance and other services, such as common landscaping.
Several of the properties in the subdivision would require a variance for rear yard setbacks. Some of the townhouses have a 10-foot deep yard that backs up to a neighboring yard that is also 10 feet deep. Homeowners might want to erect a fence to separate their yards, but Ponzio said that fences would have to be approved by all owners in the association.
“If it is done, it would be in the whole” and decided by the homeowner’s association, Ponzio said, calling fee simple ownership the “best form of ownership in the world.”
“I’m not sure why they are here if they are going to have a condo association anyway,” a neighbor said during public comment, noting the developer is building the project for profit.
Neighbor Stewart Leon called it a “beautiful project,” but the applicant is “begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission” and the project would never have been approved last year if it included fee simple ownership.
When the vote was taken, Patterson said fee simple ownership with an association would be “as tight as a condo association would be” and with the restrictions the board would impose, he didn’t see any detriment to neighboring properties or the city.
Also voting yes were Craig Palmisano and Remi Pelosi who said fee simple ownership would not change anything and that forming a homeowners’ association would be a condition for granting the variances.
Board members Michael Cristaldi, Margaret Guber-Nulte, Steve Jasiecki and Michael Richmond, who voted no said there was no “compelling reason” to grant 37 variances.
“I don’t see how it benefits the city one way or the other, but I know sitting here I would not vote yes to grant 37 variances,” Cristaldi said.
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Margate planners unanimously approve 6-unit townhouse development
