Habitat Trailer Request Denied; Test 15 Minute Parking on Kinderkamack Proposed

In the start of a new year, the all-Republican Oradell council looked to move forward with how to better handle parking along the business district on Kinderkamack Road as well as the future construction of a Habitat for Humanity project.

Currently patrons of local businesses can either park in the municipal lot off of Park Avenue, the lot off of Lake Avenue, or along Kinderkamack Road for up to one hour.

"Down by the we are running into a situation where the parking spaces are being utilized as one-hour spaces but several of the businesses along there have a faster turnover," Borough Clerk/Administrator Laura Graham said.

According to Graham, the borough is waiting on a final report from Borough Planner Joseph Burgess on the logistics of amending a parking ordinance from Brookside Avenue to Ridgewood Avenue on the northbound side to create a 15-minute parking area on Kinderkamack Road.

"The idea is to test this theory for a six month period and allow for the police to enforce it," Council President James Koth said. "We're going to talk more with the Chief [Frank Florio] in the Public Safety Committee and see if the automatic license plate readers could be programmed to include a timestamp so that as the officers patrol by they could enforce the rule."

The amended ordinance, which could be introduced later this month, is required to give the the ability to enforce any change to the parking time limits. 

Following that, the Council unanimously decided to deny a request by Habitat for Humanity to place a construction trailer on site prior to work beginning for the affordable housing project.

At this time, the borough's building codes only allow for Pods (portable containers) on a construction or renovation site to store materials, tools or personal belongings incase of a structure fire.

"In other towns, the trailer could be placed within the building setbacks for conformity as a temporary structure," Borough Engineer Marisa Tiberi said. "But for this site, it is just not possible due to the setbacks. It would have to be located near the rear of the property."

Because the borough code does not allow for a construction trailer on site, Habitat's request was denied but did allow that a Pod would be acceptable instead.