Plans approved for Ilan School expansion project Construction on all-girl Jewish high school to start this summer BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer EATONTOWN - A major renovation project to convert the former Steelman School building located on Broad Street into an all-girl Jewish high school is expected to begin this summer. Applicant Ilan High School Building Association Inc. received unanimous approval from the nine-member Eatontown Planning Board on April 29 for the final site plans for the project. The board at the meeting also approved several variances being sought by the applicant, including those for parking lot lighting and yard setbacks, unanimously. "It's a welcome addition to Eatontown and I'm looking forward to seeing it," Planning Board member Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said of the application. Plans for the project call for the construction of a 6,820-square-foot gymnasium at the corner of Broad Street and Academy Avenue; a two-story, 689- square-foot addition facing College Avenue; and a 627-square-foot addition to the front entrance facing Broad Street. The addition to the front entrance at the building will include a new entrance on the first floor and a library expansion on the second floor, according to plans on file at the Planning Board office. Construction on the project is expected to be completed in time for the 2009-2010 school year, according to attorney Michael Wenning, who is representing the applicant. The project is expected to expand the Steelman School building to allow for 120 students to be housed in the new school building, Wenning said. The Ilan school currently educates 95 students in a rented space at the Congregation Brothers of Israel Synagogue in Elberon, Wenning explained. Wenning, of the Bradley Beach-based Keith, Winters and Wenning, firm, explained to the board that the site plan for the project had been revised from a previous version as per the board's request. Revisions to the site plan include the elimination of several parking spaces, the addition of a 6-foot-high fence in the rear of the building, more significant plantings to block headlights from the parking lot from shining into neighboring houses, and the limiting of cars leaving the sight from making a right turn out of the parking lot on to College Avenue, Wenning explained. Planning Board Chairman Paul Kirzow expressed concern about a portion of the plan that allows motorists exiting the parking lot onto Broad Street to make both a left and right turn. "You're going to have people make a left turn and a right turn simultaneously from that exit?" Kirzow asked. Kirzow said that drivers being permitted to make both left and right turns onto Broad Street from the parking lot would cause a traffic hazard. "If there are two cars there, an SUV type or a van, you cannot see the cars, the traffic, that is coming the other way," Kirzow said. The exit onto Broad Street is located approximately 50 feet to the west of Academy Avenue, Kirzow said. Motorists exiting Fort Monmouth regularly use Academy Avenue, which is owned by the Department of Defense, to access Broad Street. Kirzow explained that he has used Academy Avenue to turn left onto Broad Street many times and has frequently had his view obscured by cars making right turns. "My other concern is, based on your numbers, and I've read your traffic report, there are a heck of a lot of cars at peak hour coming out, especially at night, that are making a right out of that Fort Monmouth exit," Kirzow said. Kirzow requested that the applicant restrict motorists from making a left turn out of the Broad Street exit until Fort Monmouth closes, at which point the applicant could apply to allow motorists to make the movement. Wenning told the Planning Board that he would take the board's request into consideration when the application appears before the state Department of Transportation (DOT). Tarantolo explained that because motorists will be exiting on Broad Street, which is a state highway, the applicant must also submit their plan to the DOT for approval. Constructed in 1908 with six rooms, the former Steelman School building was expanded twice over the years, once in 1938 and again in 1948. The expansions included an addition of six more classrooms and the construction of a fireproof stairwell. Because of the age of the structure, any additions the applicant makes to the building must reflect the original architectural style of the building. The Ilan High School Association Building Inc. purchased the former Steelman School building from the Eatontown Board of Education for $1.4 million in September 2007. The Board of Education will use the proceeds from the sale to fund and expansion project at the borough's Memorial Middle School. Plans for the expansion call for the construction of several administrative offices, including the Superintendent's Office, the board Administrator's Office and the district's curriculum and technology offices to be added onto the existing Memorial Middle School structure. The Steelman School housed the Board of Education's administrative offices until January, when board personnel were relocated to a modular building behind the borough's Meadowbrook School on Wyckoff Road. The Board of Education personnel are expected to remain at the modular building until construction on the Memorial School expansion is completed.