WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J.—The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear a revised application to build a two-building rental apartment complex with 53 units at 188 Broadway.
The proposed number of units are down from the 60 rejected in July 2019. The original application was unanimously rejected after nearly seven months of hearings, with several on the board then citing the fact that the parcel is zoned for office use and no efforts were made then to use the site as office space.
Other criticisms voiced against granting a use variance in 2019 included traffic congestion, lack of access to emergency service vehicles, high density, lack of open space, lack of borough benefits, and no efforts made to lease the building as office space.
Earlier, this year, applicant 188 Broadway LLP resubmitted its original application for a 60-unit, two-building development, stating that due to the pandemic more housing was needed and that office space was not needed there due to lack of demand.
It noted that during the pandemic many former office employees were now working from home, and were expected to even after the pandemic, noting the site’s zoning created “economic inutility,” a special reason that makes it eligible for a land-use variance.
Veronica “Ronnie” Appelle, member of a local residents’ group SHINE opposed to overdevelopment, and a Democratic candidate with incumbent Craig Marson in the June 8 primary, said the new 53-unit application is “unacceptable.”
“If the owners of that site are allowed to build high-density rental apartments, it could open the floodgates to building rentals on any available land in town and set a bad precedent for the future of Woodcliff Lake,” Appelle wrote Pascack Press recently.
“High-density apartments throughout Woodcliff Lake will impact everyone’s taxes in the form of additional personnel and services as well as negatively affecting property values,” she added.
Appelle charged that the 53 units on the site’s 3.6 acres means a density of 14.68 units per acre and the application includes neither “green space” nor outdoor recreational space for tenants.
Appelle said that Broadway, a county road, cannot be widened, and at the nearby borough train station, the train stops 28 times per day, creating traffic bottlenecks on Broadway and at Woodcliff Avenue and blockages for emergency vehicles that need access to the area.
Appelle said that the borough’s Master Plan, now being revised, does not permit multi-unit housing on the 188 Broadway site.
Appelle criticizes the owners of 188 Broadway for not making any efforts to rent the single office building as office space in 2019. She made the same point in a recent letter to Pascack Press.
Paul Kaufman, an attorney and principal on the application, told Pascack Press in March that the new submittal allows residents to view the reservoir, a major complaint of residents and also raised again by Appelle in opposing the development.
“The pandemic has accelerated a change in the marketplace where office building use has dropped dramatically. In addition, this is not a site conducive to retail, which has also seen a dramatic market decline as a result of online shopping. Essentially, the permitted uses in the Zone are no longer feasible,” Kaufman told Pascack Press.
Kaufman also previously called the 188 Broadway location a “perfect residential site” due to its location across the street from a train station
The revised proposal requests a use variance for multi-family housing due to the site’s currently zoned special office zoning. Previously, the 60-unit proposal set aside nine units of affordable housing while it was not clear how many affordable units are proposed.
About eight units are required under the borough’s 15 percent affordable set-aside ordinance for new multi-family (five or more) housing units.
In addition to a reduction in units, each building’s unit mix has also been revised. Building One will contain 37 units, 33 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units.
Building Two will contain 16 units, including 12 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units. Totals include 45 one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units. In addition, 111 parking spaces will be provided for 53 units; where 97 parking spaces are required. The 111 spaces were originally proposed for the 60-unit complex.
An appeal by the developer, 188 Broadway LLP, is pending before Judge Gregg Padovano. Previously, the borough attorney said that case has no bearing on any resubmitted application for the 188 Broadway property.