WOODCLIFF LAKE—The Borough Council has voted to accept the Planning Board’s recommendation to designate 188 Broadway as a “non-condemnation redevelopment area” and approved its planning consultant to create a redevelopment plan for the 3.3-acre site.
The Dec. 22, 2022 vote was 4-1. Councilwoman Josephine Higgins voted no; councilwoman Angela Hayes was absent.
As yet we have no timetable on when a redevelopment plan would be ready.
Prior efforts by 188 Broadway LP to develop the 188 Broadway site — once for 60 apartments and once for 53 apartments — were both unanimously rejected by the Zoning Board in 2019 and 2021.
The Borough Council voted, 5-0, on Dec. 6 to approve a “memorandum of understanding” between 188 Broadway LP and the borough that calls on Woodcliff Lake to rezone the 188 Broadway site, based on a redevelopment plan to be approved by the Planning Board and Borough Council. (See “It’s settled: 46 housing units at 188 Broadway,” Pascack Press, Dec. 12, 2022.)
The MOU agreement calls for a 46-unit development on the site, converting the existing office building into 37 rental apartments and constructing nine townhomes behind the rental apartments.
In a separate letter to Pascack Press printed in our Dec. 19 issue, councilwoman Josephine Higgins and former councilman Craig Marson wrote a letter that opposed the rezoning of 188 Broadway as an area in need of redevelopment.
Dec. 26, 2022, we printed a letter from Mayor Carlos Rendo and Councilman Richard Schnoll taking issue with the Marson/Higgins’ letter. (See our archive at issuu.com/thepressgroup to read the two prior letters.)
During public comment Dec. 22, two residents questioned aspects of future redevelopment at 188 Broadway.
Resident Alex Couto said he wanted to offer input on maximum building heights and landscaping. Padilla said to forward an email to him or Borough Clerk Debbie Dakin and that he would forward the comments to Planner Liz Leheny, who is drafting a redevelopment plan.
Rendo told Couto that the public will have “a chance to comment every step of the way” in 2023 when the redevelopment plan comes before the Planning Board and Borough Council. No redevelopment plan timetable or cost was provided in Resolution 22-208.
Resident Veronica Appelle, a longtime critic of residential development at 188 Broadway, said she was “obviously curious” about the future redevelopment plan for 188 Broadway.
“Still in the back of my mind is the idea that that (redevelopment) would be used as the standard for anyone who wanted to try to get a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, and would be able to say, ‘Well, you gave it to 188, why not us?’,” Appelle said.
Neither the mayor nor council members replied to Appelle’s comment.
Previously, planning consultant Liz Leheny, of Phillips Preiss Grygiel Leheny Hughes LLC, Hoboken, had said a redevelopment plan would only apply to the 188 Broadway site, and nowhere else in the borough.
The Planning Board study on whether to declare 188 Broadway as an “area in need of redevelopment” was done by Leheny, upon request by the council. She found two of eight criteria applied to the 188 site as defined in New Jersey’s Local Redevelopment and Housing Law.
Parts of the two criteria that applied related to discontinuance of the use of a building or buildings previously used as office parks; and areas with buildings…” detrimental to the safety, health, morals, or welfare of the community.”
The resolution notes that upon receipt, the council will provide the Redevelopment Plan to the Planning Board, who “shall within 45 days” provide a report to council with its recommendations on the plan. If a response is not received within 45 days, the resolution notes this “failure to respond” relieves the council of its obligation to consider Planning Board recommendations.
The resolution adds, “The Planning Board’s report shall include an identification of any provisions in the proposed Redevelopment Plan which are inconsistent with the Master Plan and recommendations concerning these inconsistencies and any other matters as the Planning Board deems appropriate.”