Belton Manor plan reviewed

Decision pending for proposed development

It will take a little longer until the Franconia Township Board of Supervisors makes its decision on the proposed Belton Manor Estates development.

The development was listed on the board’s March 19 meeting agenda for a vote on preliminary approval, but was removed during discussion at the work session preceding the meeting.

Belton Manor is planned on a little more than 10 acres on Godshall Road between Lower and Reliance roads, developer David Caracausa said at the work session.

“There’s currently two houses on this property. One’s above ground and one’s underground,” Caracausa said. “We’re basically proposing eight new lots for single-family detached dwellings.”

The new homes would be built along a cul-de-sac, he said.

Board Chairman Grey Godshall said two of the new homes would be at Godshall Road, but would face the cul-de-sac, with the view from Godshall Road being of the sides of the houses.

Godshall Road is a residential street with homes facing the street, he said, calling the plans for the side view of the two homes “aesthetically not pleasing.”

Caracausa said the layout is typical for a corner lot, such as these, and that the homeowners will want to face the new street.

Godshall also said he’d like to try to find a way to keep more of the woods now on the property.

“Franconia Township has very few wooded areas left and you want to take out 300 mature trees,” he said. “That gives me angina.”

The actual number of trees to be removed under the plan is 336, Godshall and Caracausa said.

Godshall said he didn’t want to drag out the process,

but needed another month to look at the plan and get answers to questions he has about it.

“I don’t know if we’ve explored all the possibilities,” he said. “I guess what I’m saying is I don’t feel we’re at the best plan.”

Caracausa said the township has reviewed the plans and the planning commission recommended preliminary approval be given.

The wooded area is so thick that some trees are starving out others, he said.

“These aren’t the prettiest trees,” Caracausa said. “There are some nice trees back there, but because it’s so packed, they’re not all the prettiest trees.”

Asked by board member David Fazio if the trees could be thinned out, Caracausa said that might be possible.

“We’re going to save as much as we can,” he said.

The development is designed to disturb the smallest part of the tract possible, he said.

“It’s a 10-acre site. We’re disturbing about 4.6 acres,” Caracausa said.

A restrictive covenant will be added to the deeds of the homes, he said.

“The purpose of the restrictive covenant is that it has to stay that way forever,” Caracausa said, “so even when these lots are sold, they’re going to have a restrictive covenant that they can’t go in there and just clear cut the trees and so forth.”

Godshall said he also has questions about the stormwater management plans.

He said he’s not asking for the plans to go back to square one and be started over, but said he wants to try to see if there is another, better way to develop the site.

“Before we go and cut 336 trees down, I would like to make sure we’ve exhausted every creative ounce of energy we have,” Godshall said.

Building the homes as a cluster development would be best to preserve the rest of the property, Caracausa said, but said, “that’s not a fit here.”

“The problem is we’re trying to cluster something in the narrowest part of the property,” Godshall said.

“That’s not your issue,” he said. “That’s just the way the property’s laid out.”

Allowing a cluster development on the property would also allow more homes to be built there, he said.