New borough zoning could bring parking, residential changes

MILFORD — As work nears an expected year-end completion, a proposed revision of Milford’s zoning could bring about some big changes in the way businesses plan expansion and how some homeowners use their accessory buildings. Currently, various businesses are required to provide parking by the type of business operated. That prompts requests for parking variances from most new businesses, because as Councilman Ed Raarup explained at a Monday planning session, “We just don’t have enough spots.” Borough officials have been concerned that the growth of businesses combined with lack of new parking will eventually prompt many to “pave over the front yard,” as Borough Matthew Osterberg put it. Milford has been trying to encourage side and rear parking. On Monday, Osterberg proposed a different approach: assign parking requirements according to the size of the lot, not the type of business. The standard 9,600-square-foot borough building lot would be allowed 75 percent lot coverage, with a minimum of five parking spaces required. Expanding on the same property and seeking a variance, would be viewed creating a hardship. “You can’t create a hardship for a variance,” said Enforcement Officer Duane Kuhn. Meeting with Planner Carson Helfrich, who is drafting the revision, borough planners also discussed creation of a “buffer zone” between the commercial and residential zones where bed-and-breakfast businesses could be housed in homes and accessory buildings, including garages, which front the alleys behind the commercial streets. Councilman Dennis Gilpin called it a melding of uses and argued for the idea. Borough zoning currently allows home occupation businesses in accessory buildings and home occupations now include providing “room and board.” Helfrich noted that the use is not in the new draft he is writing. Raarup argued against the idea, saying such businesses are legally motels and introducing transient residents would harm Milford’s neighborhood atmosphere. The panel also discussed the removal of all front setbacks on Broad and Harford street properties and once again panned the use of sidewalk sandwich signs.