Central Ave. redevelopment moves ahead

WEST ORANGE, NJ — At its Dec. 7 meeting, the West Orange Planning Board unanimously approved the redevelopment plan for the six Central Valley properties designated as a condemnation area in need of redevelopment.

But the board did not just wholly accept the plan, which was prepared by Peter Van den Kooy and Sean Moronski of Matrix New World Engineering. Instead, it recommended several changes be made to it prior to the next step in the process, which is bringing the plan before the West Orange Township Council for a vote.

The first recommendation was to make structured parking a permitted use in the redevelopment area. Prior to the meeting, the plan listed eight acceptable uses: off-street surface parking for multifamily residential parcels in adjacent redevelopment areas, public open space, multifamily residential uses, neighborhood commercial uses, pocket parks and other public amenity uses for 4 Tompkins St., warehouses for properties with frontage on Central Avenue, public self-storage facilities and other customary accessory uses. But board member Lee Klein expressed reservations about allowing warehouses and public self-storage to be built when the corridor is already rife with similar buildings.

Klein said he would rather see a parking garage go there instead. That way, he said, if the land is ruled too contaminated to construct residential buildings — 8-10 Central Ave. and 18 Central Ave. are both designated as brownfield contaminated sites — redevelopers would have a building option more appealing than a warehouse or public self-storage facility. Acting township planner Paul Grygiel said the idea made sense, and the rest of the board agreed.

Yet Klein was met with opposition for his other suggestion — striking the warehouse and self-storage uses from the plan completely. Chairman Ron Weston said that while such structures may not be ideal for the area, making the plan flexible is what will attract redevelopers. The area is “blighted” and desperately needs to be redeveloped, Weston said, so the board does not want to ward off potential builders.

“To the extent that we don’t allow more than just what our idealized examples are, we’re limiting the potential for redevelopment,” Weston said. “I think we all look at this place and say ‘Oh, I’d love it if this looked like downtown South Orange.’ If that doesn’t latch on though, what about the idea of allowing ratables in? Frankly, with self-storage, there’s not a lot of nuisance and it’s a ratable.”

Councilwoman and Planning Board member Susan McCartney agreed that warehouses and public self-storage should not be excluded from the plan. As much as she would prefer seeing other types of uses in the redevelopment area, McCartney said the township has design standards that could guide any warehouse or storage facility built. As a result, she said the town can help bring about structures acceptable to everyone — as it did with Manhattan Bagel and other buildings.

Not everyone agreed that leaving the warehouse and public self-storage uses in the plan was a good idea. Board member Jerry Eben said he certainly does not want to see more warehouses or storage facilities in the area, adding that the town would likely not be missing out on any redevelopment opportunities by excluding those uses because he does not think anyone would be interested in them in the first place.

“I don’t see how another storage guy would come in and, knowing that the place across the street isn’t 100-percent full, want to build one in competition with the guy that’s been there for 15 years,” Eben said.

In the end, however, both uses were kept in the plan.

The second recommendation made by the board was to specify that the bulk requirements listed for mixed-use residential and neighborhood commercial front yards, rear yards and side yards are minimum amounts. That means the front yard setback will be a minimum of 7 feet from the public right-of-way, the rear yard setback will be a minimum of 10 feet from the property line and the side yard setback will be a minimum of 4 feet from the adjoining property boundary. Parking is allowed to be built within the side yard, though.

Additional bulk requirements for mixed-use and neighborhood commercial buildings include a maximum of 70 residential units per acre, a maximum building height of 55 feet, a maximum of five stories and a minimum of one parking space per residential unit. The bulk requirements for warehouses include a maximum building height of 40 feet, a minimum lot area of 10,000 square feet, a minimum rear yard setback of 30 feet from the property line and a minimum of 25 feet between buildings.

Other recommendations made by the board included minor language changes. For instance, one specified that the redevelopment shall replace and supersede all previous zoning that governs the area to the extent that the plan and zoning conflict.

The board seemed pleased with the rest of the plan, which also mandates that any development must satisfy all township-performance standards, general parking-area regulations, residential building and site-design standards, landscaping requirements and many other rules. A potential redeveloper must also submit a traffic-circulation plan to the board for approval.

The redevelopment plan also emphasizes that it is consistent with other plans at the state and local level, such as the Harvard Press Redevelopment Plan, the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, and the township’s own master plan. These documents advocate for redevelopment and Brownfield contaminated site remediation, and, according to the plan, that is this plan’s purpose as well.

“This redevelopment plan is a smart growth initiative that encourages redevelopment of already developed areas, specifically those more vulnerable areas that have suffered economic displacement from the elimination of previous industry,” the plan reads. “This redevelopment plan also advances the reuse of a vacant industrial Brownfield site and supports the township’s economic revitalization plan.”

Now that the Planning Board has given its approval, the council will vote to officially approve the redevelopment plan. But the board is not out of the process as it will eventually be required to approve any proposed site plan.

  FEATURED, Redevelopment, West Orange Planning Board, West Orange Township Council