FREEHOLD TWP., N.J. – Following a series of public hearings, Freehold Township zoning board members voted to deny a use variance for the owner of Brothers Landscaping.
Neighbors of the Robertsville Road business were relieved when the application was denied at the board’s Aug. 26 meeting. For several months, residents had opposed the application that sought a variance to permit the storage of landscape materials and equipment. Their issues included noise, truck traffic, unsightliness of the property, and chemical storage.
On the other hand, Brad Moini, owner of the landscape company, was disappointed but prepared to make the best of it.
“We’re going to go ahead with getting the nursery ready. The farm market will be operational in 15 to 30 days,” he says, adding that he is in the process of looking for more horses to board.
Moini’s Robertsville Road property is zoned to allow farming and a horse-boarding operation. He says he is planning to sell nursery stock that he has been growing on his 8-acre property.
“We have 200 pear trees, flowers, perennials, bushes, a lot of products that we normally use for ourselves,” he says. "We will probably increase production.”
Moini says he will relocate his landscape business but noted there will still be a few trucks coming and going at the property to pick up and deliver materials. There will also be trucks and trailers on the property.
“It’s still a commercial property,” he says. People can bring their horse trailers on the property. We have five horses now and will probably have about 16 when we’re done.”
Moini says he has already spoken with Guy Leighton, the township’s assistant planner, about all of the land use regulations.
“All we need is a permit. I have to submit a sketch of where it’s going to be on the property and they have 15 days to approve it,” he says.
Some residents indicated that they believe Moini’s motivation for putting up a commercial farm stand is spiteful, but Moini says he needs to bring in income to pay the taxes and mortgage on the property.
“I’m not the kind of person that goes around giving people trouble,” he says.
The decision to deny Moini’s application was unanimous, which is not surprising, Leighton says.
“Usually when someone comes before the zoning board they are asking to do something that is not permitted,” he explains. “The onus is on the applicant to convince the board that it is something the community really needs. In this case, Mr. Moini did it (ran the landscaping business) first and then asked for permission. Normally the board has to anticipate how an application is going to fit into the scheme of things, but he has been in operation and hasn’t done anything to make it better. He’s been a really bad neighbor.”
Moini, who is in his early 30s, is a lifelong resident of Freehold and has been in business for 17 years, although most of those years were not at the Robertsville Road location.
According to Leighton, he went about his application the wrong way.
“Instead of stating why his operation was beneficial, he threatened to put up a farm stand that would be more onerous. He can do that because of the Right to Farm Act,” the assistant planner says, adding that residents had valid concerns. “There is all kinds of stuff in piles out there and he never did anything to clean it up.”
Moini’s 8-acre property is near a 3-acre residential zone. He purchased it in 2001 to raise nursery stock and use in conjunction with his landscape business that had been in the borough.
He had been running his landscape business from the Robertsville Road location for some time when neighbors complained to the township. At that time he was told that a landscape business was not a permitted use in the zone. He paid a fine and then applied for a variance.
Moini’s property was once a horse-training center with boarding permitted. The property still has a stable with 14 stalls, a barn, an in-ground pool and a two-and-a-half story house.
The grassroots Freehold Neighborhood Alliance was working with Robertsville Road residents to convince the zoning board to deny the application. Apryl Basile, chair of the alliance, read a prepared statement just before the board members made their decision. She notes that Moini’s property is along the stretch of Robertsville Road that has a scenic roadway designation, as per the Freehold Township Scenic Roadway Corridor Overlay Zone enacted in April 2002.
Basile says Robertsville Road and the surrounding area is a residential, scenic neighborhood and that the residents want to maintain its integrity in protecting and preserving the value of their homes and quality of life.
The board subsequently denied Moini’s application for a variance to permit a commercial use of his property.