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Reposted from Montclair Times Online:
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Wrong venue? Opponents say Planning Board should review project
Thursday, July 8, 2010
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY JULY 8, 2010, 1:22 AM
BY DAN PROCHILO
THE MONTCLAIR TIMES OF THE MONTCLAIR TIMES
They’re going about this the wrong way.
That was the argument the Zoning Board of Adjustment heard during a recent meeting on the Mental Health Association of Essex County’s attempt to put up apartments for the mentally ill on Orange Road.
The planner for the neighbors who are challenging the proposal said the Mental Health Association should be requesting a zone change from the Planning Board, instead of attempting to get variances from the Zoning Board. Going through the Planning Board would require a vote from the Township Council, which would be under pressure from numerous opposed neighbors to vote "no."
"It would become a political issue, but that is the process," said Jason Kasler, the neighbors’ planner. "That is what good planning tells you to do, so the public has input on it."
"The way they’re going about this is an improper use of variances," Kasler said. "You are rezoning that side of the street," he said, referring to the western side of Orange Road, near Hollywood Avenue.
Should the Board of Adjustment approve the project, it would affect a swath of land consisting of five lots, Kasler said.
That land extends south from the South End Business District to a garden-apartment complex. While the tract is in a single-family zone, all but one lot would be occupied by apartment buildings if this plan is green-lighted. That would force the owner of the last one-family lot, sandwiched between the others, to try to put up a multifamily building, since a home in that location would not be marketable, Kasler said.
William Scott, one of the organizers of the neighborhood’s challenge to this proposal, told the board that the project would not help Montclair meet its affordable housing obligations, either.
The state has told municipal officials they have more than enough one-bedroom affordable units, and they need to provide more two- and three-bedroom units.
The Mental Health Association is pitching two buildings, each with six one-bedroom units.
A major driving force behind opposition to the plan is the objectors’ belief that, to use Scott’s words, the 4th Ward "has carried the burden" of furnishing most of Montclair’s supply of affordable housing. Of Montclair’s 651 "supportive housing" units — including those for economically disadvantaged people and for senior citizens, as well as rehabilitation centers and halfway houses — 525, or 81 percent, are in the township’s southernmost, predominantly African-American ward.
"Was there some discrimination, some steering, where you have such a density?" Scott asked rhetorically during an interview. "You can’t get to these numbers by default."
But Robert Davison, the association’s executive director, was skeptical of opponents’ claim that this project would add to that high concentration. A map made by the objectors showed the vast majority of that housing is packed into an area east of Elm Street and between Bloomfield and Elmwood avenues. This development would be 10 blocks and one mile away from there, Davison said.
There will be another special meeting about this application next Wednesday, July 14. |