TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Less than three months after the Township Council voted not to purchase the 1.45-acre former Charlie Brown’s property, at 95 Linwood Ave., the site’s previous bidder, Apple Montessori Schools, has submitted an application to the township Zoning Board to build a preschool there.
The application, submitted Sept. 8, is being reviewed for completeness by Zoning Board engineer Paul Azzolina, said board secretary Grace Kalish.
She said the applicant had applied for a “D” or use variance to construct a school on a site now zoned for single-family homes.
Once the application is deemed complete and scheduled for a hearing, it will be available for public inspection 10 days before its official hearing date. The application is likely to begin hearings before the end of this year, Kalish said.
Currently, Zoning Board meetings are conducted on Zoom, she said.
Erica Amon, vice president of development for Apple Montessori Schools LLC, told Pascack Press the facility is planned as a two-story structure mostly hidden from neighbors by landscaping. It will educate infants and toddlers and feature Montessori preschool programs for up to 154 children.
Amon said the school will have “a residential feel” and include a swimming pool.
She said the plan is to keep the main building “as far from residents as possible” nearer the Garden State Parkway side of the property. She said she hoped residents would see it as a “beneficial asset to the community.”
She said their application includes a full traffic study and that they were hoping to present the application sometime this fall, possibly in November.
Apple Montessori Schools has been operating in New Jersey for 50 years, said Amon. She said 6 preschools are operating in north and central New Jersey.
“So we’re very excited and I think it’s going to be a beautiful school. We’re really excited to come to Washington Township,” Amon said.
Council bailed on site
The township itself was keenly interested in acquiring the site — most recently a Charlie Brown’s restaurant — first for a new DPW headquarters and then for a new police headquarters, persuading the seller to come to terms under the specter of what town attorney Ken Poller conveyed to them as “the condemnation route.”
The town got an extension on the $1.35 million contract in order to fit in additional environmental studies when it came to light there were was a possible previous use there as a filling station.
In the end, against the backdrop of emotional testimony from neighbors and nearby Paramus residents not to site a DPW there, the town council voted not to proceed with a follow-up environmental look, recommended at $12,000 to $17,000.
We’ve reached out to Mayor Peter Calamari and Council President Desserie Morgan for comment for this story.
Morgan told us in June, “We voted unanimously not to move forward with the 95 Linwood Ave. property based on the environmental issues and concerns that came to light after the most recent study. I’m confident we made the best decision with the information we were given.”
Amon, who first revealed Apple Montessori School’s (and the township’s) interest in the triangular-shaped site in an early January 2022 phone call to a special Township Council meeting on an unrelated matter, told Pascack Press that the popular private school was again interested in the site.
Amon has said that Apple Montessori Schools had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on due diligence but that the township’s condemnation threat left the property owners with little choice but to rebuff their deal and enter negotiations with the township.
Amon told Pascack Press recently that, as part of its due-diligence, their environmental consultants had investigated the site for underground pipes and contamination from prior gas pump usage on site and found no concerns.
Piping found on site was removed and no soil contamination was found, Amon said. She emphasized that the site meets all required state environmental standards.
The township is still working to replace its razed DPW headquarters. See Michael Olohan’s related story, “Council wants hard look at steel for new DPW,” page 3.