VILLAS — LeGates Farm, a long-time favorite among residents for summer and fall produce, is about to be subdivided. On May 3, Lower Township Zoning Board approved a plan for three lots, with the largest, at 65 acres, set aside for the county Farmland Preservation Program.
The farmland preservation application is pending with the county, according to Patricia Holscher, daughter of C. Bolton and Dorothy LeGates, who both perished in an April 2006 auto accident on rain-slick Route 47 in Port Elizabeth.
She said her father began the process of placing the farm in the preservation program before his death but held out a large portion of the property.
“I have no use for that portion and want to put the rest of it into the farmland (program),” she said.
Holscher said her application to the program was being amended to add the extra land.
She said her father had contracted with Ken Harris, owner of Marlboro Farm in Green Creek to run the farm during 2006.
Harris farmed the property for fall crops and ran the market, Holscher said, and he will operate the market again this year.
The board approved the creation of two new lots for two old homes located on the property, separating them from the farm acreage and farm market building, located off Bayshore Road in North Cape May.
While the board granted a hardship variance for one of the lots that contains less than the township’s required road frontage and lot width, it also asked that a surveyor clarify exactly how much frontage exists for the lots containing the houses.
If the 65-acre lot is accepted into the county’s farmland preservation program, locals can continue to look forward to produce from the market.
In other business: The board granted final site plan approval to Thomas DiDonato for construction of a duplex on Wilson Drive off Route 109 in Schellenger’s Landing. This site was formerly the dock for a whale-watch sightseeing boat.
At an earlier meeting, the board granted the property a change of use from commercial to residential, as well as approving a subdivision and construction of a duplex on the adjoining lot.
Joseph Maffei, an engineer from Engineering Design Associate of Ocean View, said that while the property measures 7,000 square feet, a portion only about 4,900 square feet is “upland” with the rest being under water. The proposed duplex would be three stories, with a garage and living area on the first floor, bedrooms on the second floor and the living room and decks on the third floor, he said.
The living area on the first floor would be four feet higher than the garage floor.
Genesis Healthcare, operators of North Cape Center nursing home, 700 Townbank Road, received approval to build a 2,450 square foot addition to the health care center. David Overlander, attorney for the project, said the addition will replace a 1,200 square foot rehabilitation room that is too small for the center.
The new rehab room would be used only by patients at the facility, he said.
Overall, the current two-story building occupies 31,000 square feet with 120 beds; the facility is located on 21 acres of land.
