An East Emerson Avenue property where a three-family home was razed last year, got approval to be subdivided into two lots for a single-family and two-family home.

The property at 98 E. Emerson Ave., (Block 312, Lot 14) was granted a minor subdivision, D variance, and bulk C variance by the Zoning Board Adjustment during its monthly meeting in November. The application was approved 6-1 with the lone dissenting vote from Commissioner Paula Braxton, according to minutes of the Nov. 26 meeting, obtained through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request. Three commissioners were absent.

The applicant, 86 Bloomfield Realty LLC, proposed one two-family home and one single-family home, both of which would be sold after constructed. Proposed plans were a larger structure, which were revised to be presented to the board as smaller, City Engineering Jacqueline Dirmann testified. The use variance is for the two-family home.

Newark-based 86 Bloomfield Realty LLC acquired the property for $135,000 in April 2017 from the estate of Kevin Scanlon, c/o Cooper Real Estate Management. The site was among properties listed as vacant on the city’s foreclosure registry as recently as September 2015. It last was assessed for $137,800, generating property taxes of $9,222.95 in 2018, according to property records.

Engineer Anthony Gallerano of Cranford-based Harbor Consultants testified that the previous home was in poor condition. The new plan subdivides the site into two lots, with a single-family home on the right side and a two-family home on the left.

Zoning does not permit two-family dwellings, which is why the D variance was requested, and changes to lot size and width required the C variance. Gallerano testified that only four homes currently meet zoning requirements in the area among 18 lots in the neighborhood.

Parking will be provided by two-car garages and two parking spaces located in the front, for a total of eight spaces, according to the minutes. Each unit of the two-family home will have an assigned space.

Commissioner Adrian Zapotocky asked why the property owners did not build two single-family homes to which Christopher Kozlowski, attorney for the applicant, replied that it was the plan that owners came up with that best fits the neighborhood, according to the meeting minutes.

Six neighbors testified during the public comment period, describing a serious parking problem along Emerson Avenue. There are six row houses without driveways where residents having multiple cars, according to Litsa Georgiou of East Emerson Avenue. Nearby Pierce Street does not have parking because of the fire house and on the weekends the Post Office uses street parking, she said. The new construction will cost at least three parking spaces, she said, and instead suggested creating a shared driveway or have them mirror each other instead of putting the entrance on the opposite side. Applicants agreed to move the stairs on Lot 14.02 from the right side to the left side.

In response to a question from Georgiou, Kozlowski explained that erecting one building would have required additional variances, something the applicant did not want to pursue. There also was not enough room to put driveways on both lots and would take away green space from the back.

Tawana Cook-Leeks of East Emerson Avenue said the previous home was vacant for more than a decade and was happy that something new would be built but also had concerned about parking. Parking allocated to the Post Office and Pierce Street residents are on East Emerson Avenue and there’s an issue of commuters parking there in addition to residents of Skyview, a block away, while most homes don’t have their own driveways.

Commissioner Marie Richelieu asked whether it can be changed to two single-family homes to make more space. Kozlowski replied that a lot of thought was put into the application and this is a scaled-back version of what was originally proposed while still remaining economically feasible. The property owners were not interested in amending the application.

The application provides enough parking to meet city ordinance, and as Rahway grows, it’s a common experience, according to Kozlowski’s testimony. This application cannot fix it but perhaps the board can make a recommendation to the city in general, he suggested.