Town considers designating Eagle Rock as a redevelopment area

WEST ORANGE, NJ — A professional planner hired by the township to conduct a redevelopment investigation into the Eagle Rock commercial area recommended that seven of the 18 properties he studied be designated as an area in need of redevelopment at the West Orange Planning Board’s June 1 meeting. The Eagle Rock commercial area consists of the commercial stretch along Eagle Rock Avenue from Main Street to Pleasant Valley Way.

Jeffrey Janota of the firm H2M Architects + Engineers told the Planning Board that the properties in question along Eagle Rock Avenue and Prospect Avenue all satisfied criteria to be considered for redevelopment. In most cases, Janota said they met condition D, which covers deleterious land use, obsolete layout and other issues detrimental to the surrounding community.

But this does not mean that the Eagle Rock district is “blighted.” Instead, Janota stressed that redevelopment is simply a way to improve certain properties as part of an overall vision to enhance a region.

“It’s more of a planning tool,” Janota said.

Janota arrived at his conclusions about the Eagle Rock area after visiting each of the sites and interviewing their owners. He also reviewed numerous township records regarding the properties and the general commercial area, including the 2010 West Orange Master Plan. That document suggested redevelopment as a means of increasing the region’s economic viability while also maintaining the town’s open space. It also highlighted a need to reconsider the driving circulation design, with Janota’s report quoting that: “According to the West Orange Police Department, the Essex Green and Whole Foods shopping centers are responsible for half of all pedestrian/auto accidents in the township.”

After conducting his own study of the Eagle Rock commercial area, Janota ruled that properties such as the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center, CVS and the Skyline Plaza were not in need of redevelopment. But he found that several others could substantially improve their sites using the help a redevelopment designation would provide, which includes eligibility for payment in lieu of taxes programs.

One such property is the West Orange Plaza. Though Janota acknowledged that the plaza is currently 99-percent occupied by businesses that seem to be doing well, the planner said its layout is faulty. Particularly, he said there is an “excessive” amount of parking with large undelineated areas, leading to driver confusion and crashes as vehicles try to cross the large lot. In fact, he said there were 215 traffic accidents at the property between 2006 and 2015. But this issue could be remedied with redevelopment, he said.

“The parking lot itself can be redesigned to allow for additional green space, breaking up the sea of parking lot,” Janota said. “Trees and landscaping can try to prevent people from cutting across.”

In addition to the excess parking, Janota said vehicle queuing in the area conflicts with parking, creating more potential for collisions. And, he said the lack of curbing and drainage allows storm water to sheet down the lot.

Janota also drew attention to STS Tire and Auto Center, which is located within the shopping center’s parking lot. Janota said that the STS actually does not meet any of the criteria to be considered detrimental to the community, but he still recommended it for redevelopment using Section 3 of the local redevelopment and housing law, which allows such sites to be included in redevelopment areas if necessary for the effective redevelopment of the overall area. The planner said the STS needed to be included in case the plaza ever wants to reconfigure its parking lot’s ingress and egress to make it safer.

The former Eagle Rock Diner property was also named by Janota as a site eligible to receive a redevelopment designation for a number of reasons. The planner said there have been multiple vehicular crashes on the property through the years, and its parking lot features poor lighting and a surface in bad condition. The lot’s circulation pattern requires drivers to exit onto Eagle Rock Avenue and return to the entrance if they cannot find a spot.

When board member Jerry Eben pointed out that the diner has been demolished since Janota visited the site — with a new diner soon being built in its place — Janota responded that he still advises that the property be included in a redevelopment area to further assist the plan for such a space.

Another property that Janota recommended for redevelopment was Mayfair Farms. After visiting the banquet facility, the planner said he observed that the old building was facing several issues, including a basement that floods consistently, a heating system that is not energy efficient and a leaking roof that needs to be replaced. Additionally, he said the employee and delivery parking lot is in poor condition with a lack of curbing and drainage, therefore causing flooding and erosion. A customer overflow parking lot also is underutilized, he said.

In addition, Janota said Mayfair Farms also has to deal with the sanitary system that runs through its backyard, overflowing several times a year.

A fifth property that Janota suggested be included in an area of redevelopment was the Exxon Mobil station, a site that he said has been associated with a lot of car accidents as drivers try to cut across traffic on Prospect Avenue. Another issue he raised was the fact that the gas station is set only 35 feet from the intersection, which poses problems for vehicles entering and exiting. The lack of sidewalks at the intersection is also a big concern, he added.

“It’s really not a safe place to walk,” Janota said.

The Verizon building near the Exxon Mobil station was the sixth site recommended for redevelopment. The planner said the property contains excessive water runoff with limited drainage. Aside from that, the facility only houses approximately 10 employees instead of the more than 100 for whom it was originally designed. Plus, he said the less than 20 feet separating the driveways of the Verizon building and the neighboring Eagle Rock Lanes bowling alley represents an unsafe ingress and egress for drivers.

Eagle Rock Lanes was the seventh property Janota said should be included in a redevelopment area, mainly due to the number of police calls to the site — 310 since 2006 for incidents ranging from car collisions to disputes to burglaries, according to his report — making it a deleterious land use, the planner said. He added that the bowling alley also is without curbing, which means there is nothing to prevent parking lot runoff from draining into nearby Crystal Lake. Poor parking lot demarcation and lighting are issues as well, he said.

Overall, Janota said the Exxon Mobil station, the Verizon building and Eagle Rock Lanes’ proximity to Crystal Lake serve as an excellent opportunity to do something that takes advantage of the area’s scenic beauty and draws people to the Eagle Rock district.

“It may provide for an appropriate development that connects all these properties in and around that lake,” Janota said.

With Janota’s study completed, it is now up to the West Orange Planning Board to officially recommend to the Township Council that a redevelopment plan be completed. Such a plan would lay out a detailed vision for transforming the Eagle Rock commercial area.

But Eben questioned the feasibility of planning for a redevelopment area when almost all of the properties Janota mentioned are privately owned. Considering that eminent domain is not an option — the council resolution facilitating the redevelopment study made that clear — Eben asked the planner how the township would go about carrying out a redevelopment plan.

In response, Janota said the redevelopment plan would be more of a long-range goal than an immediate action manual.

“When we’re talking about looking at how the properties relate to Crystal Lake and the open space, we’re thinking in terms of the future,” Janota said, pointing out that a plan could take 10 or 20 years to come to fruition. “If Verizon relocates, they sell their property, at least there’ll be a redevelopment plan in place to have some say as to what could go there.”

The situation with STS is different, Janota added, since the business leases its property from the West Orange Plaza. If the plaza needs that property to make improvements in its parking lot, he said it can negotiate with STS to end the lease.

Eben was not the only board member to inquire about the creation of a redevelopment area. Tekeste Gebremichael also questioned the enforceability of a redevelopment plan before admitting that he did not like the idea overall. Board Chairman Ron Weston meanwhile asked about the difference between rezoning and redevelopment, to which Janota responded that rezoning relies more on the individual property owners making changes to their sites. He said a redevelopment plan, however, allows the township to craft a unified vision for an entire district, using input from property owners and the public.

The residents who spoke during the meeting did not appear enthusiastic about the idea, though. Public advocate Harvey Grossman asked whether designating a redevelopment area would expose West Orange to tax appeals, to which Janota answered that could potentially happen depending on the specific situation. Grossman then asked if redevelopment would hurt a property’s value; Janota responded that it would depend on the outcome of any changes made, though he stressed that the purpose of redevelopment is to enhance a site’s economic viability.

Still, Grossman had doubts.

“I’m trying to wrap myself around this, but I can’t,” Grossman said. “You’re dealing with individual properties — viable businesses that generate significant taxes to the town. And we don’t want to upset the apple cart.”

Janota said he does not believe redevelopment will have such a negative impact. Rather, he said it is an opportunity for the township to work with property owners to improve their properties.

Resident Kevin Malanga took particular interest in the fact that Mayfair Farms was named as a site recommended for redevelopment. Referring to Janota’s report — which said facility owner Marty Horn indicated that his business had not been profitable for the past seven years, with sales down 40 percent since 2014 — Malanga asked the planner whether it seemed that Horn was ready to sell Mayfair Farms. Janota answered that, based on his conversation with Horn and the condition of the property, it could be possible.

With that being the case, Malanga questioned who would really benefit from the advantages of having a redevelopment area property.

“The entire benefit is really not to the benefit of Mayfair Farms and the community,” Malanga said. “It’s really to the benefit of some future developer who’ll be provided with a tax abatement — low cost bonding subsidized by the township — to build this condo or office building.”

Janota agreed that a future developer could benefit from redevelopment, but he said Mayfair Farms and West Orange could as well.

When it was resident Susan Gelb’s turn to speak, she asked how a potential PILOT would affect residents’ property taxes. But Janota said the really could not say whether taxes would go up or down without knowing the end results of a redevelopment.

In the interest of time, the board decided to postpone further discussion of this issue until its July 6 meeting.

  Redevelopment, West Orange Planning Board