TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—The township administration has set a special meeting Monday, Aug. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall in part to reintroduce an ordinance to let the mayor name two alternates to the Planning Board.
Mayor Peter Calamari denies that he wants the power to influence proceedings that could lock in a high-density development here.
Also on the agenda are the reintroduction of the firehouse funding ordinance and a resolution to amend the Volunteer Fire Department bylaws.
After the ordinances’ failure Aug. 12, Calamari and Council President Michael DeSena posted that they’d be reintroduced at the next regular meeting, Sept. 3.
On Aug. 22, amid many residents’ vocal call for building the new firehouse, the special meeting was advertised.
The Planning Board alternates measure, which would let the mayor name two Class IV members, failed after Township Attorney Kenneth Poller—prodded by concerned residents’ attorney John Lamb of Beattie Padovano—advised Councilman Art Cumming recuse himself “out of an abundance of caution.”
Cumming, who had just voted for passage, amended his vote to “abstain.” Voting for adoption were DeSena and Vice President Steve Cascio (who had abstained with Cumming at the measure’s July 15 introduction). Councilman Michael Ullman voted no.
Asked last week how he is likely to vote Aug. 26, Bruno told Pascack Press, “It’s the Planning Board’s issue. Not mine.”
The late James Viviano’s American Dream Estates would develop on 14.32 acres between Van Emburgh Avenue and the Garden State Parkway.
His children, along with “James A. Viviano (deceased),” seek 48 single-family homes, 25 townhomes, and a commons with a private road, two public roads, parking areas, and a detention basin.
The subdivision has been before the Planning Board since at least 2002 but its variances have expired and the Planning Board has not decided whether it needs a new site plan.
There is a small portion of town-owned land promised to the developer at 2001 prices as part of the deal. The land has not been conveyed.
American Dream Estates comes up on council agendas under closed session as pending litigation to do with affordable housing.
Concerned Neighbors of Washington Township Inc. hired Beattie Padovano to help make sure the process was transparent, up to contemporary building and environmental standards, “and with integrity.”
In a statement Aug. 22, the group told Pascack Press in part, “We have never tried nor do we want to stop this development. We would love a development to materialize.”
But, it said, “The project … should undergo some reasonable changes because the old variances the developer obtained have long since expired and the developer now requires approvals under the current-day conditions, not those that existed almost 20 years ago.”
It added, “Our elected officials act as if they have made up their mind to approve the developer’s application without a thorough examination of the pertinent issues that have come under scrutiny and view their constituents’ concerns as nuisanced opposition.”
The videotape of the July 15 Township Council meeting shows the administration acknowledged the Planning Board alternates ordinance came at the behest of the Planning Board, advised by special counsel Allen Bell, in connection with the Viviano application.
It was not on the July 15 agenda but rather came up in the conference session. Council members discussed it being a “rush” with an eye toward accomplishing it in time for the next Viviano application hearing.
Lamb spoke out at the Aug. 12 public comment session noting that Cumming has previously recused himself at the Planning Board over litigation with Lamb and should remain consistent in that position.
He added it would be proper for Calamari—son of former longtime Planning Board Chair August Calamari, who was in charge when Viviano won approval in 2004—to recuse himself from planning deliberations in the matter, citing “personal involvement.”
The mayor is a non-voting member of the Planning Board.
August Calamari, a longtime leader in area Republican politics, stepped down from the Planning Board when his son was elected mayor.
Mayor Calamari said Aug. 12 he is not sure whether he will recuse himself, which according to Lamb constitutes doubt that case law says calls for recusal.
Lamb asked the board which councilmember or members had proposed the alternates measure.
Poller replied, “Ordinances come up all the time…What does it matter? I don’t see the reason for asking the question. I don’t think there’s any reason to answer the question, to tell you the truth.”
Asked whether it had anything to do with Viviano or American Dream Estates, Poller said “I’d have to get back to you on the minutes.”
Poller and Lamb volleyed for several minutes, with Lamb describing as “mysterious” the move for alternates now, with Calamari’s and Cumming’s roles uncertain.
With one member resigning and two recusing themselves, the nine-member Planning Board has six members, which would be more than enough for a quorum.
Adding alternates to the Planning Board is legal; the town already added alternates to the Zoning Board, Poller said.
Both at the Aug. 12 meeting and in an Aug. 20 letter to Poller, Lamb—a land use attorney who has represented towns, developers, and concerned residents—said the town was obligated to be transparent.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen [such a move]. It doesn’t appear to me to be proper if the reason for getting board members on is to try to stack the board—or in the middle of an application influence the board—because there’s plenty of board members who can vote on the applications,” Lamb said.
He suggested that the council could pass the measure but not apply it to applications currently before the Planning Board.
“In that case the extra two members wouldn’t be appearing to influence the vote or be appointed for any political reasons,” he added.
Calamari bristled over Lamb’s phrase “stacking the board.”
“I take great exception to that comment because I only appoint people who I think will listen to every case fair and balanced, and I think that comment was a tremendous disrespect to me,” he said.
Lamb said, “That’s always the concern, that when you’re in the middle of an application and members disqualify themselves or get disqualified, all of a sudden there’s an ordinance that has never previously occurred in Washington Township to add [Planning Board] members.”
He added, “As I have stated many times on both sides of the issue, no council person or board member wants to be Count One in any appeal.”
DeSena put in his view “as an outsider” that the Viviano application is not pending due to the concerned residents’ efforts, and suggested approving alternates now met Lamb’s criteria.
Lamb disagreed: “The application was filed and certainly was started, and the developer cancelled the last two meetings, not my group. There were two hearings at which testimony was taken… the application was filed, reports have been given, so I would fairly say that that application has started,” he said.
In his letter to Poller, Lamb said in part, “The action of trying to hide the introduction, the misinformation about the recusals, the action that the council was ‘packing the court’ [in Poller’s words at the time], the failure to disclose who the proponent of the ordinance was—allegedly the Planning Board attorney handling one application in the Township (the Viviano application)—leads to the conclusion the Township is not acting properly or reasonably on this.”
On the closed Township Taxpayers Group on Facebook, Calamari has been receiving enthusiastic thanks for his strong support of the firehouse funding ordinance.
Other posters are questioning why the Viviano matter keeps warranting special meetings