WOODCLIFF LAKE—After more than a year of meetings, debates, surveys and public input at 12 committee meetings and six Planning and Zoning Board meetings, the Planning Board voted March 15, overwhelmingly, to approve the newly updated 2022 Master Plan that will help guide the borough’s development over the next decade.
The plan was prepared by Phillips Preiss Grygiel Leheny Hughes LLC, along with Neglia Engineering Associates. The Borough Council appropriated $70,000 overall for the plan’s development, which has been a contentious issue among council members and residents over its yearlong development.
The 95-page plan can be accessed on the Planning Board website under a linked blue box marked “2022 Master Plan.”
Voting in favor were Chair Robert Friedberg, councilman Steven Falanga, Heidi Pollack, Corrado Belgiovine, Nilufer Descherer, Brian LaRose, Thomas Panso, and Jennifer Howard.
The plan goes to Borough Council on Monday, March 21, for a likely final vote and approval.
Should the plan be approved by council, the council can decide to work with its professionals to draft ordinances to create and implement new design standards and zoning based on the Master Plan.
Higgins appeared to abstain over concerns she raised about the recent inclusion of a specific property, the so-called five-acre Egg Farm, or Finn property, that had not previously been mentioned.
Chair Robert Friedberg said a comprehensive study was done of possible larger vacant properties that could become available and potentially suitable for redevelopment.
Higgins noted as a councilwoman she would get a chance to vote on the plan at the March 21 meeting.
Friedberg said the farm’s current zoning allowed one single family home per acre and the recommendation is for 4 units per acre to help provide a “more affordable to live in” option for the current property owners and other town residents in the future.
He said the plan does not address the 80-acre BMW site as “that’s too massive to get into figuring what would go there. It’s just a giant ‘what if’ it ever becomes vacant and it would be addressed at that time.” He said there were no other larger parcels in town for possible redevelopment.
Five residents called in to the Zoom meeting. Most were from the east side of town, where some have regularly opposed the plan. One noted a lack of design guidelines that “has been plaguing the Broadway Corridor for all these years.”
Craig Padover said that there “has been no comprehensive analysis approach to unify the Woodcliff Lake portion of the Broadway Corridor from Lincoln to Highview and on north, east and west side.”
Padover said the plan fails to “rejuvenate the area” through expanded pedestrian walkways, proximity to shopping, mass transit, reservoir and open space.”
He said he feared the Master Plan does not create “a unified vision” for Broadway and called for the plan not be adopted by the Planning Board.
Friedberg said the Master Plan could not get into the many details of design. Board Planner Liz Leheney said design standards for Broadway are in place and may be expanded on via ordinances.
Ann Marie Borelli worried about Broadway ending up “looking like a canyon” and said she was concerned about the heights and setbacks of buildings that may be allowed on Broadway.
Leheney assured her that Broadway design standards call for buildings that “must look residential, consistent with design guidelines.”
Borelli cited the larger setback at 62 Broadway as an example of what might be followed.
She questioned “vague” recommended standards for commercial space on ground floors on Broadway. Friedberg said the ground floor could either be retail or residential under guidelines.
Friedberg noted that “retail has changed…and every town wants a walkable downtown but we can’t all of a sudden say we’re going to be a Westwood, or we’re going to be a Ridgewood, or an Englewood. It just doesn’t happen like that.”
He said “What we don’t want to see happen is what Park Ridge did, which is force the developer of that building, The James, to put in 100% retail on the ground floor.” He said there are 16 retail units there “that in my opinion will never be rented in the next two centuries. We did not want a bunch of empties lining Broadway.”
Residents Gwenn Levine and Alex Couto advocated for expanded setbacks on Broadway, with Levine calling for more and improved sidewalks for safe pedestrian passage.
Couto asked what the plan proposed for maximum density along Broadway. Leheney said that 10 units per acre was the recommendation.
Friedberg said the planner helped guide their recommendations, along with input from 212 resident surveys.
He said the plan “represents the vision of all of the people in town” not just residents from the East side of town.
He said East side residents “have been complaining for years about the way that Broadway looks…it looks dilapidated.” He noted surveys showed residents “said it is an eyesore, it is an embarrassment, they don’t want it to continue looking like this.”
Veronica Appelle said “none of us wanted to see it [Broadway] look like it did. None of us wanted to live with a gas station for almost 20 years, abandoned like it is…we don’t want the urbanization of Broadway.”
She said while the Broadway Corridor cannot be a downtown like Westwood or Ridgewood, “but we can look right and not overcrowded, we think.” She questioned whether board members read all the letters from residents, including her letter.
Planner Corrado Belgiovine said most letters had been discussed and he had already commented on the issues raised.
Attorney Brian Eyerman said all letters submitted on the Master Plan would be kept in a public file available to residents.
Friedberg noted, “We spent an enormous amount of time on this, and so have the planners, the Zoning Board, Bob Nathan, and other people who’ve participated. We feel this is a great document and a great representation of what the people in the town are looking for in terms of vision.”
He added, “It might not make everybody happy but hopefully it will make 99% of the people in the town happy.”