WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J.—The Borough Council approved a $50,000 plan to perform a comprehensive review and update of the Master Plan on Feb. 8, after arguing whether it should be paid for via a five-year emergency appropriation or a shorter budget period.
The emergency appropriation contract was approved by ordinance and a resolution. The measures appropriate up to $10,000 per year over five years. It approves the hiring of Philips, Preiss, Grygiel, Leheny, Hughes LLC of Hoboken for the work.
Longtime planner Richard Preiss is expected to provide the review and update, which has been discussed on and off for years.
Although it eked by, 4–3, upon introduction late in 2020, the Master Plan update passed, 5–1, on Feb. 8, with only councilman Craig Marson opposed. He said he was concerned about approving an emergency appropriation over a five-year period.
The latest update ordinance was introduced in late January since no public hearing or vote was taken after its initial introduction in December. Council needed to take action before Dec. 31, 2020 on its initial ordinance but that did not occur.
Marson previously said that using an emergency funding measure had the potential to harm the borough legally if developers could then say the borough’s Master Plan was outdated and not viable.
Just recently, a developer, 188 Broadway LLP, who was denied approval in 2019 to build a 60-unit, two building complex at 188 Broadway, and later filed a legal appeal, had resubmitted an updated preliminary and final site plan for the 188 Broadway site.
As of press time, no Zoning Board hearing date was scheduled. The pending litigation should not be a hindrance to the new application, Borough Attorney John Schettino recently advised.
Initially, the developer’s attorneys had argued that the borough’s Master Plan was outdated due to it not being updated in a decade, but recent reexaminations and revisions helped keep it current and in effect, argued borough attorneys in rebuttal.
Two homeowners calling in Feb. 8 urged the council to pass a resolution to require an updated Master Plan. Resident Gwenn Levine called for preserving “the single-family [home] nature of East Side.”
Resident Alex Couto echoed Levine’s comments and said single-family homes should be “highlighted” in the update.
At a December council meeting, Zoning Board Chair Christina Hembree, attorney Sal Princiotto, and former councilman and planner Corrado Belgiovine called in to support a Master Plan update. Princiotto said the update “should have been done many years ago.”
At the Dec. 7 council meeting, following a long debate, words were exchanged between Marson and councilwoman Jackie Gadaleta after Marson implied that some members might have had hidden agendas for wanting to revise and update the Master Plan, such as trying to appease a possible developer.
However, Mayor Carlos Rendo and most other council members said that was not the case, and said they resented the allegations. Rendo noted the lack of an updated Master Plan was hurting the borough, and has recently stated that with the Hilton’s closing, ESAI moving to Clifton, and lowered commercial occupancy on Tice Boulevard, these changes have hurt the borough’s economy.
At the annual Greater Pascack Valley Chamber of Commerce Mayors’ Breakfast on Jan. 27, held over Zoom, Rendo said he anticipated a defeat of the measure to update the Master Plan. He blamed the Broadway Corridor vacancies on lack of an updated Master Plan and said litigation against local planning and zoning boards would continue if the plan was not updated.
Rendo did not return a call seeking comment by press time.
He previously said the public would have multiple opportunities for input to the Master Plan update over its estimated six to nine month completion.