Holmdel Judge To Decide Whether a Tree Processing Business is Permitted in Residential Zone

The owner of land at 805 Holmdel Road where a loud tree-grinding business is in daily operation has been summoned to municipal court. 

Holmdel Zoning Officer David Olsen signed a complaint on November 28 against Phyllis Manzo for operating a business in a residential zone, a violation of township ordinance.

The land in question is next to Alcatel-Lucent's Crawford Hill facility and across from residential Longview Drive, where residents have complained for years about the noise, smell of exhaust and rotting mulch, and the traffic hazards created by 18-wheelers coming in and out of the narrow driveway without stopping, loaded with timber.

Manzo's attorney Lee W. Shelly of Freehold, said Manzo has entered a not guilty plea, because he and his client believes the property falls under pre-existing non-conforming use. 

According to Holmdel Township Municipal Prosecutor Christian Schlegel, decades ago, the residential area on Holmdel Road was also was zoned for businesses, or allowed businesses to operate within it. Then in 1959, the area was zoned to be exclusively residential. 

However, the business on the Manzo property was "grandfathered in" and exempted from the 1959 ordinance, said Schlegel. Manzo bought the property sometime after the 1959 ordinance, Schlegel said.

Back in 1989, there were two residences, an excavation business and Lee Pesce's 8-year old landscaping and nursery business on the land, according to Zoning Board records. The resolution states the uses were "presently non-conforming," and "its use predating zoning ordinances in the township."

In a March 29 brief addressed to the court, Shelly stated:

"Consequently, from a plain reading of the ordinance provisions and the finding of the zoning board in 1989, the defendant’s commercial use of the property is a pre-existing, non-conforming use protected by Section 30-125 of the Zoning Ordinance,"  Shelly wrote. "The complaint should be dismissed because of evidential insufficiency."

Some argue that the scope and size of the business that has grown has surpassed the original intent. Large trucks come and go to bring trees for recycling. The loud shrilling of gas-powered saws and grinders can be heard far away.

One nearby resident, Ann Wright, has returned to Township Committee meetings repeatedly to plea for relief from the noise. 

At the November 17 meeting, she said she witnessed five different trucks coming in and out of the site. It was at that meeting the Township Committee unanimously agreed to have its attorney, Duane Davison, look into the matter, and they also said the township Environmental Officer, Paul Kraus, would check into environmental impacts of the operation. 

The prosecuting attorney has announced that the case is set to be back in court on August 15th.