GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The joint meeting of the Montclair and Glen Ridge planning boards took place Wednesday, May 11, at Montclair Fire Department headquarters. The subject was a revised draft of the proposed Mountainside Hospital redevelopment project.
It started as a disjointed meeting as the Glen Ridge Planning Board members did not have the opportunity to review the changes the Montclair Planning Board was suggesting. Montclair acknowledged that Glen Ridge had no opportunity to review the changes but a member of its board said the goal of the meeting was to come to a common understanding of the changes in plans.
One topic of discussion was the huge tract of land in which a proposed parking garage was to be built. But the garage was proposed to take up only a portion of the 215,316 square feet of buildable space. Montclair said it was willing to permit more building in this area and recommended setbacks of 40 feet off Highland Avenue plus step-backs as any building increases in height to accommodate for this.
But Glen Ridge board members said the public “has to digest this.” To this, a Montclair Planning Board member said that the public did not want anything on the site that was not there already.
“We think it makes sense to have options of further development in this area,” a Montclair board member said. “We have to give the hospital some idea of what they have to work with.”
But the Glen Ridge Planning Board would not budge, and in the end, Montclair had to concede that the area would not fill up with buildings. Another point of a possible concession came from Glenn Pantel, of Drinker Biddle, the attorneys representing the hospital.
John Wynn, of the Montclair Planning Board, wanted the hospital have have LEED certification meaning the buildings would be built energy efficient. Wynn said to Pantel that to have a modern construction environmentally responsible is something the hospital should want.
“Feasibility and cost is the problem,” Pantel said. “We’re not prepared to commit to LEED certification. We’re not ruling it out but I can’t rule it in.”
Pantel was told that he did not study the matter; that it was not necessarily expensive.
“Great buildings get built without LEED certification,” Pantel said.
He was asked how long it would take his client to reconsider. Pantel said it would take a few days.
“We want to make this an environmentally sensitive building,” a Montclair Planning Board member said. “We don’t want this to be a stumbling block later on.”
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