Surprise Zoning Board Vote Receives Applause

Zoning Board member Joe Loonam abruptly, and to the appreciation of those in attendance, made a motion just before the meeting closed for the Borough to conduct a third party traffic studay and safety evaluation.

“I’d like to make a motion for this board to request from the Mayor and Council to budget the money for the town to do a comprehensive traffic and safety analysis,” said Loonam. “The thing that’s paramount to me in doing so is that it be done by an independent third party who has no prior knowledge of any of the statistics.”

Berge Tombalakian, a traffic engineer working with the Borough, continued to hear questions from members of the public at Tuesday evening’s Zoning Board meeting. One of the main issues raised against Tombalakin’s testimony is that much of the information he has used to conduct his evaluation was taken directly from the testimony of an engineer working for the applicant.

Joe Looman, Peter Rebsch and Lou Dennis voted in favor of the motion and Gerrard Ix voted against it. The Zoning Board will now seek approval from the Mayor and Council who meet Wednesday evening. 

The video above shows the applicant’s attorney, Jeffery Del Vecchio, questioning the board’s pending vote on whether or not to attempt to conduct their own traffic and safety evaluations and the ensuing vote.