BY JOHN SNYDER
OF PASCACK PRESS
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—A massive time capsule from 2004 has opened in 2018, just about spilling out a subdivision of 48 single-family homes, 25 townhomes, and a commons near Immaculate Heart Academy.
If applicant James Viviano, who applied for an amended major subdivision and site plan approval on 463 Van Emburgh Ave. expected smooth sailing at the Planning Board’s Sept. 26 meeting, he didn’t get it.
The 14.32-acre property, between Van Emburgh Avenue and the Garden State Parkway, drew some 75 residents who voiced alarm at critical aspects of the proposal, not least of which is the fear of contamination—and its density, which many who spoke at the session said is way out of line with the township’s character and capacity.
They slammed shortfalls and confusion surrounding the project, including over:
- Phase I soil studies (were these accomplished?) and environmental remediation: none seems planned despite oil tanks, cars, and batteries still being pulled out of the site, which used to be a chicken farm;
- A traffic study: None was conducted from the early aughts, let alone in 2018, though a police memo from 2004 evidently is in the mix;
- Who negotiated a slim $73,000 escrow for cleanup should the subdivision’s sewage system back up into houses (this was left unanswered);
- Why there are no sidewalks as part of the plan;
- Who’s been felling trees at the site in violation of ordinance;
- Why there was no apparent planning with the Westwood Regional School District, which already suffers overcrowding;
- Construction impacts to Westwood, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ridgewood, and Hillsdale.
Project stretches into memory
After the township and Viviano settled litigation related to the Mount Laurel Doctrine for affordable housing in 2001, the property was zoned for the project. Viviano nabbed preliminary approval in 2004, then the project went dark.
This Sept. 13, abutters received notice by mail that Viviano was applying to amend the final touch, the sewer system.
Project attorney Ronald Shimanowitz and engineer Brian Murphy said Sept. 26 if that went through they’d move on to permits. They explained a proposed gravity system sewer line that would have gone through protected Green Acres land and into a manhole in Kennedy Boulevard was scrapped.
They now plan an unmanned subterranean pumping station on site, with waste traveling under Van Emburgh and then to the Ridgewood pumping station.
Residents scorned the two for saying it would be futile at worst and too expensive at best to apply with the DEP for a review of sewer options.
Title for a gap area goes to the neighbors who abut the area.
“We’re giving up whatever claim we have on that to the neighbor. It will be a condition of the final as well,” Shimanowitz said. No one thanked him.
Shimanowitz, who said the years-long delay had to do with “solving” the sewer’s engineering challenge and recovering from the Great Recession, earned jeers from the packed house by waving off as “irrelevant” questions on anything other than wastewater.
Meeting, in disarray, will be continued
With the Planning Board lacking copies of township engineer Paul Azzolina’s 30-page report, or apparently the same version of a 21-point letter of required action items that the project leads said were satisfied, the board voted to continue the session to Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
They said they’ll arrange a study of what can be challenged and what’s set in stone.
There were breaks in the meeting while the board sorted out feedback and static in the public address system and when the secretary was sent out to make the board photocopies.
After Azzolina said that “I don’t believe [environmental] site remediation was discussed as part of the preliminary approval,” board member Thomas Sears emerged as the people’s most valuable player, demanding, “Why would we not make that a condition? Do we need to call the DEP ourselves and ask for an investigation?”
Azzolina, the only board official also to have had a hand in the preliminary planning, replied, “Anyone is free to call the DEP and ask for a review.”
Board Chair Brian Murphy explained, “Mr. Azzolina’s report wasn’t even going to be gone over tonight. It was here so you would have it.”
Sears pressed the applicant: “For a long period of time this has been idle, then this thing pops up. What’s been changed? If we take your settlement back to 2002, how do we know that we’re abiding by this agreement? How do we know you haven’t changed anything since 2002?”
He added, “We don’t know what’s been changed on these plans except the sewer. There are hundreds of questions.”
Member Leonard Sabino backed continuation.
“I’m sorry, I don’t feel comfortable going forward with any of this. There’s too much left out. No disrespect to these gentlemen—they have a job to do, but we also have a job to do,” he said.
He also called for the current plans to be made available for public inspection at Town Hall.
Residents speak out
Both during breaks and on the record, residents had their say.
Megan Callea, who lives on nearby Katharina Place, said she was concerned about traffic and density, characterizing the project as what one would see in Jersey City or Hoboken. Another resident said it was a “monster” plan more in keeping with Manhattan.
“We’re OK with something going in. We’re not against houses going in but they need to be reasonable. Seventy-three lots, that’s high density. You guys are changing the reason we moved here,” Callea said.
Addressing the Planning Board, she called for integrity and transparency, saying, “This is your legacy. We need to know the purpose of so many units. We as community members need to make sure this is up to 2018 standards and that this is something we can all be proud of.”
She also said she got a babysitter so she could go to Town Hall to review the plans but came away empty-handed.
“I was told they weren’t there,” she said.
The Planning Board keeps meeting minutes online, but only as far back as 2012. Public records can be requested in writing.
Diane Grimaldi, who has lived on the bordering lot since 1994, when the developer reportedly made his first overture here, additionally pointed out the lack of sidewalks and the fact that there is no township landscape architect, as required in signing off on the plans.
She said the site should be looked at “before someone starts digging and disturbing the ground—our groundwater,”
Julianne Lipnick pressed the applicant to test for “sludge, oil, metals, foam—hazardous waste” at the site. She said a manifest must be supplied to the Building Department and a soil review to the state.
Louis Melendez, who has lived on Katarina Place for nearly 25 years—before that he was on Beech Street for 10 years—said “Us old geezers get out and new families come in, and that’s nice. That’s nice to see. Whatever the reason for the lawsuit between the Vivianos and the Township, I hope the animosity has changed.”
He said of the subdivision, “This monstrosity […] this is 2018. We want something reasonable.”
A labor lawyer, he said “even I had a hard time understanding what’s going on with these agreements.” He urged the Planning Board to “look out for our interest.”
William Giordano, of Kennedy Drive, asked what the overall benefit of the subdivision was meant to be for the township.
“Will our taxes go down?” he asked.
The answer, according to the board: No. The project will, however, add ratables.
Affordable housing has its day
According to Allen Bell, brought in by the township as special counsel for the application—displacing Board Attorney (and Emerson mayor) Louis Lamatina—the project’s benefit is that it conforms to the Township’s Master Plan, which relies on it to satisfy the township’s settlement with Fair Share Housing.
In 2007 the Planning Board agreed that the Viviano project— pursuant to a settlement approved by the court in 2001 and backed by a $375 payment in lieu of construction—would join properties at 639 Jefferson St. and 783 Van Emburgh Ave. as affordable housing sites.
Shimanowitz explained, “No affordable housing units are being built at this site. The only change […] is for sewage.”