Opinion ID: 3012414
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Emergency Vehicle Access

Text: The Board also identifies its concerns about inadequate access for safety vehicles as an alternative reason why the 34 proposed plan would cause an undue hardship for the Township by requiring it to compromise the safety of its residents. As noted above, there is some dispute about whether Fire Chief Ellis ever gave Lapid adequate information on the turning radius that was necessary for a tower ladder fire truck to access an emergency vehicle lane that was to swing around the back of the building; (the inability to drive a tower ladder truck behind the Facility was one of the problems that the Fire Chief identified with Lapid's plan). See supra note 1. Even if we discount the comments of Fire Chief Ellis, however, several other experts testified before the Board about their concerns that emergency vehicles would either be unable to access the rear of the building or would be unable to back out once they got there. Lapid presented almost no countertestimony, and although Lapid's engineer, Szalay, agreed that the narrowness of the access road could be a problem, Lapid did not amend its site plan to provide a wider access way. In addition to Ellis, Ferriero and Maltz both flagged the issue of emergency vehicle access as a problem with the site plan in both written reports and public testimony. Ferriero's report of March 3, 1999 stated that: The plan shows a fire lane extending to the rear of the building. The centerline radius of this drive is 43.5 feet, which is a minimal radius for access. The difficulty with the fire lane as shown is that exiting the fire lane will require backing a vehicle around this same tight radius with the edge of the drive within two feet of the building. If the vehicle is slightly off track to the inside by starting the turn too early, it will strike the building. If the vehicle is too far to the outside by turning too late or too wide, it will run off the access down a 33% slope. Ferriero's report also pointed out that the emergency vehicle access lane would actually be narrowed to around seven feet when the sidewalk ramp at the rear of the building was fitted with handrails and curbs, as is required by the ADA. He concluded that this would be too narrow to accommodate any emergency vehicle. 35 Maltz, the traffic engineer, provided similar criticisms of the site plan's emergency access way. Maltz echoed Ferriero's comments about the narrowness of the lane, and the effect of the extension of the handrails into the fire access lane. He also wrote that he had done tests with models using the turning radius of a standard bus going around an access way with the same turning radius and dimensions as the one proposed by Lapid. He concluded from his tests that it appears probable that a fire truck's wheels will leave the grass pavers area and proceed down the [adjacent 33%] slope.9 Szalay, Lapid's civil engineer, agreed during the Board's March 4 meeting, that in particular, the presence of the handrails would present a problem. He also agreed that the problem of backing out emergency vehicles from behind the building was a legitimate issue. However, Lapid did not revise its site plan to account for these criticisms regarding emergency vehicle access before the final hearing with the Board on March 24, 1999. It seems likely that the wetlands (and the required wetland buffer zone), which were located close behind the proposed location for the emergency access lane, were the reason that Lapid did not change its site plan to provide a wider vehicle access lane. In his March 4 testimony, Szalay admitted that the wetlands _________________________________________________________________ 9. Lapid suggests that the Board's expressed concerns about the Township's ability to drive a tower ladder truck behind the Facility (due to an insufficient turning radius) were pretextual, arguing that residents of two-story nursing homes are unlikely candidates for heroic rescues from ladder trucks. We agree that it makes little sense to require a twostory building that would house residents who are unable to be carried out on a ladder during a fire to provide access for tower ladder trucks. However, the Board's concerns about emergency vehicle access focused not only on the turning radius of the access lane, but also the width of the lane. The Board's experts expressed concern that under Lapid's plan, the lane would be as narrow as seven feet at one point. There is evidence in the record that this would prevent all of Scotch Plains's fire vehicles from accessing the rear of the building (because they are all at least eight feet wide). Indeed, as noted above, Lapid's engineer agreed that the presence of the handrails would present a problem. Therefore, even discounting the issues regarding the turning radius of the emergency access lane, the Board still raised serious concerns about emergency vehicle access that Lapid acknowledged, but did not address. 36 posed a substantial constraint to widening the access way. Nor did Lapid present any evidence that would undermine or call into question the Board's experts' opinions on the emergency vehicle access route. We agree that with respect to its limited safety vehicle access, the site plan would impose the undue hardship on the Township of compromising the safety of its residents. Therefore, we conclude that it was proper to grant summary judgment to the Township on the issue of whether it had shown that Lapid's requested accommodations with respect to the site plan were unreasonable because they would cause an undue hardship on the Township. The Board presented sufficient evidence to grant summary judgment in its favor with respect to the site plan approval and non-use variances, which were sufficient bases for it to deny the entire application.