School’s planned use for addition ques­tioned
Architect says proposal will allow for more
expansion in future
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

OCEAN TOWNSHIP — The proposed addition to the Search Day School is too big and contains "hidden spaces," according to an architect hired by objectors to the school’s expansion plan.

The "hidden spaces," according to Kenneth J. Fox, an architect from Wharton, are in the 1,300 square feet provided for mechanical equipment in a mezzanine adjacent to a multipurpose room and the 4,400 square feet in the basement of the proposed $1.7 million 15,507-square-foot addition.

On the plans before the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, the basement is slated to house additional mechanical space and storage.

Speaking before the zoning board earlier this month, Fox said a future administrator of the school might look at all that space and figure it could be used for teaching purposes.

"There is no need for that amount of square footage for air conditioning," he asserted. "I call them hidden spaces. It makes me wonder what that space is for."

Fox said a 12- by 20-foot space would be sufficient to house the mechanical equipment for a structure of the size under consideration.

"There’s always a need for storage space," he allowed.

The Search Day School, which serves autistic children and young adults, is seeking approval to build the one-story addition onto its existing two-story building, which is a 101-year-old mansion. Approving the plan will require granting variances because it is an expansion of a conditional use in the zone, the school is on a 5-acre lot when 10 acres are required, and the number of parking spaces proposed is below the requirement.

The school currently has 45 students at the Wickapecko Drive facility and another 18 at a satellite facility on West Park Avenue. The school administration wants to bring those students over to Wickapecko Drive when the addition is built, and hopes to increase enrollment at the Wickapecko Drive school by another 22 students to a maximum of 85.

Fox, appearing on behalf of Steven and Karen Kaplan and Dave and Andrea Taylors, whose properties neighbor the site, said, with the addition, the school would present a 199-foot long wall, ris­ing as high as 35 feet at the peek of the roof, just 76 feet from the back property line of the two couples’ homes.

"We have a big ugly wall, a massive wall, that doesn’t look anything like a school," he said.

Michael A. Bruno, the Middletown lawyer representing the Search Day School, in cross-examining Fox, noted that the planned addition meets all of the height and setback requirements of the zone.

"I think it has a negative impact on the neighbors even though it is conform­ing," Fox responded.

Fox said, while the school presented the addition as having been designed to fit into the neighborhood, it doesn’t look like the neighborhood at all.

"I see a very large, very tall build­ing," he said.

Fox said the height of the building could be lowered considerably if the proposed 26-foot ceiling in the multipur­pose room was lowered to 14 feet, which would still be adequate for the school. He suggested that the reason for the additional height was possibly for the creation of a floor of classrooms over the multipurpose room at a later date.

The hearing consumed the first hour and a half of a regular zoning board meeting. A special session devoted only to the Search Day application had been scheduled but was postponed because of inclement weather.

The application has been carried to the zoning board’s June 12 meeting, at which time it will be known whether another special session devoted entirely to the Search Day ap­plication can be scheduled. If not, the board will give 45 minutes of its regular meeting to another hearing on it.