BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - After 20 years of residing in the township, Joe Toscano is departing.

In a few weeks, Toscano, his wife, Lisa, and sons Michael, 11, and Anthony, 10, will move to Catawba, N.C. Toscano, who owned LT's Cream Ridge Equipment, will also start a new business in the South.

Toscano served on the township's Planning Board for nine years but was not reappointed this year. He also ran unsuccessfully for Township Committee in 2001 and for the Board of Education in 2004.

When asked why he thought he did not get reappointed this year to the Planning Board, he replied, "Because I was getting too smart."

The Planning Board has been working with Township Planner Mark Remsa in mapping Upper Freehold for the possibility of variable zoning. It has also completed a build-out analysis of the township.

The township currently has 3-acre residential zoning, which means a house cannot be placed on a lot that measures less than 3 acres. However, the township also offers a cluster provision that provides a developer with a 35-percent bonus density if the developer keeps 50 percent of any large tract to be developed as open space or farmland.

Toscano alleged that the board has stalled making final decisions about rezoning until a very large landowner in town can finish putting together a development deal for his property under current zoning.

Toscano refused to name names, but said he wants the public to be aware of this.

When asked when the Planning Board intends to continue its discussions on the planning process, Mayor Stephen Fleischacker said, "The last Planning Board discussion on the planning process required follow-up work by the township planner. This has been completed, and the Planning Board discussions will resume shortly."

Fleischacker said a final decision regarding zoning should be made by the summer.

Toscano alleged that taxpayers are footing the bill for "a large amount of unnecessary reports," which he believes are part of the process for stalling a zoning decision.

To date, the township has paid Remsa $65,290 since he was hired in 2005, according to Dianne Kelly, the township's chief financial officer.

Toscano alleged that by replacing him, Dianne Kelly and Daniel VanVoorhis on the Planning Board this year, the board has been stacked in favor of large landowners. It is now dominated by large landowners, he said.

Both Kelly and VanVoorhis had previously voted in favor of larger-lot zoning, which would mean that developers would need more total acreage in order to build.

Fleischacker said appointments to the Planning Board were made based on what the majority of the Township Committee believed were the best candidates to undertake Planning Board activities.

"Mr. Toscano was not reappointed for reasons that were quite different than Mr. VanVoorhis and Ms. Kelly," Fleischacker said. " Had attendance not been a concern, I certainly would have strongly supported Mr. VanVoorhis' and Ms. Kelly's reappointments."

Fleischacker questioned why Toscano waited until now to raise the issue more than five months after the Planning Board appointments if he believed that the board is biased.

The mayor said the 2006 regular Planning Board membership is made up of five "large landowners," three of whom have farms in the Farmland Preservation Program.

"We added two 'large landowners' as regular members on the Planning Board," Fleischacker said. "One in the Farmland Preservation Program, who is a former mayor, township committeeman and Planning Board member. The other [is] not in the program but ... has served as a Planning Board alternate member for many years."

Toscano alleged that due to pressure from large landowners, the township changed the provisions of a former township planner's recommended cluster option.

In 2001, then-Township Planner Richard Coppola prepared a report that recommended that residential lots designed in a cluster format could not exist on more than 35 percent of the overall developable tract, with no less than 65 percent deeded in perpetuity as farmland or open space. Coppola also recommended that the 65 percent of open space would not include undevelopable areas such as wetlands.

In addition, Coppola recommended that the township change its zoning to 6 acres. Coppola received $10,858 for his report on 6-acre zoning in 2004 from the township, according to Kelly.

Toscano said the township has changed its cluster option so that only 50 percent of developable tracts would have to be deeded as open space, and environmentally sensitive areas could be included in the preserved parcel.

In Toscano's view, the Planning Board should go back to Coppola's original recommendation, as well as change the current lot zoning from 3 acres to 5 acres "immediately."

He called it "an immediate Band-Aid for a terrible situation."

Toscano also criticized the township's governing body, saying that Upper Freehold has no leader but that it is being run by Business Administrator Barbara Bascom and Township Attorney Granville Magee.

Toscano said he would like to see a change of government so that Upper Freehold could have an elected mayor who would serve for three years. He noted that Fleischacker and last year's mayor, Sal Diecidue, only served on the Township Committee one year before accepting the mayoralty.

"A mayor with two years' experience [on the governing body] does not give [a person] the ability to steer the township in troubled times of growth," he said.

When asked about Toscano's remarks, Bascom said she would never recommend that any municipality change its form of government without doing an extensive charter study.

"A charter study," Bascom said, "is the formation of a five-member commission that must investigate the present form of

government to see how it is supposed to operate and if it can be tweaked.

"Further," she continued, "they should study the other forms of government available under state statute. There should be public hearings, and the public should be given all the options regarding each form of government."

Bascom said some municipalities change their form of government by what is known as direct petition, where a small group usually decides what form to change to.

Bascom teaches about municipal government at the Center for Government Services at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Bascom said Upper Freehold has a Township Committee form of government with an ordinance administrator, and that she can only implement the governing body's policy.

Bascom also said it should be recognized that the reason there are statutory positions in local government and tenure is for continuity.

"Governing body members do come and go, and there is a learning time, lots to learn," Bascom said. "The continuity of such positions as the chief financial officer and the clerk keep things going, and we provide the checks and balances, making sure everything is done in accordance with state regulations."

Toscano accused the Township Committee of being reactive rather than proactive. As an example, he cited the recent death of longtime resident Ethelynn Maginnis, who was killed in a car accident on Meirs Road.

Toscano said that in 2003, the Planning Board noted that Meirs Road was dangerous when it was considering a development application, but that the township did not put appropriate signs on the road until after the accident.

Toscano alleged that Upper Freehold will soon become like Upper Saddle River in Bergen County, a town relying on "megabucks" residents for its tax base and with few commercial ratables. He mentioned the ongoing problems his friend Doug Walsh is having with the Cox's Corner commercial development on Route 524.

Toscano said the township does not follow its own rules, and that Walsh successfully sued the township for requiring a developer to keep a certain style of architecture for all 11 contiguous lots in the proposed commercial subdivision at Cox's Corner. However, Toscano pointed out that the architectural styles of the new and current municipal buildings are completely unrelated.

According to Kelly, the township paid $27,938 to the law firm of Malsbury & Armenante for the Walsh lawsuit.

Overall, Armenante received $72,471 in 2005. Magee and Magee received a total of $249,720 in 2005, according to Kelly.

On the issue of the westerly bypass, Toscano said that the Four Seasons development was approved on the condition that the bypass would be constructed. He said that a lack of planning was demonstrated by the fact that the township then decided to build Byron Johnson Park near the site.

Toscano said the contentiousness in the community regarding the bypass and the new middle school on Ellisdale Road is "a good example of a bad situation due to lack of planning." He said that in other communities, land is put aside by the town for future use as schools and other public needs.

Toscano said he is not moving out of town because of recent township events, but because there is more opportunity for him in North Carolina.

Toscano said his house cost him $150,000. His property taxes on a 1,700-square-foot ranch on 3.6 acres in his new home, he said, will only be $1,100 per year.