No agenda for the scheduled Monday July 31, 2023 7:00 pm Community Meeting on the American Legion Drive (ALD) Area in Need of Redevelopment (AINR) has been published by the Town as Voices goes to press. It is scheduled for in-person participation at the Library Auditorium and should also be available by zoom (though no zoom address has yet been made public.)
Our readers are undoubtedly well-aware of the criticisms Voices has made of the development model that is embedded in the state’s redevelopment statutes – and the license those laws give to municipal governing and land use boards secretly to proceed to make development decisions about what is blighted and about what should replace it and who should carry-out specific development plans.
But the ALD-AINR is in a league of its own. The improper processes which have given rise to the designation of this ALD -AINR and its sister AINR (the Township Beverly Road parking lots on the north side of Cedar Lane) arguably are the least legitimate of all the AINR actions taken by Teaneck officials to-date.
It is not yet clear what if any role in this community meeting will be played by the Crossroads Companies, the firm to which Teaneck’s prior Council gave a 6-month conditional redeveloper designation which has now long since expired. As Voices has previously reported, “consultant” Robert Veloshin did not reveal his simultaneous role as a senior Crossroad’s official, and whose report in January 2021 played a central role in the original ALD-AINR designation, specifically in designating the current Stop & Shop facility as detrimental to Teaneck’s safety, health, welfare and morals.
Stop & Shop’s May 2021 suit challenging the AINR designation called out Mr. Veloshin for his conflict of interest.
Embedded in the 9/20/2022 Stop & Shop litigation settlement approved by the prior Council (prior to the settlement or its proposed resolution being made publicly available) is a conceptual plan for both these AINR areas that would have the Town not only give Crossroads large swaths of town property but grant Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs - major long-term tax breaks) to the Company after it constructed and generated revenue from proposed residential and parking facilities. The plans involve a variety of very large and tall facilities.
Voices has recently learned that the plans for these facilities are being actively opposed by all the affected organized grassroots resident organizations of which Voices is aware.
Voices strongly endorses the suggestion now being made by several of these grassroots groups that at the onset of the 7/31 community meeting the actual current status of Crossroads as this “former conditional redeveloper designee” be announced and as well that the conceptual plans for these two AINR’s proposed by Crossroads be described as having not been approved. To be legitimate they necessarily must be separately approved, according to the statutory steps for redevelopment plan approvals under the redevelopment state statute ( N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-1 et seq.)
If Crossroads is still being given the opportunity to outline its plans at this meeting, we strongly suggest that the meeting Moderator (not yet identified) clarify that its description of this plan take no longer than 10-15 minutes and that extended public input constitute the remainder of the meeting. Resident visions for this important retail area – whether expert or lay – are needed at this point in the process.
What do we recommend to our readers do in preparation for the meeting?
1) Read the January 29, 2021 Report by “consultant” Robert Veloshin about Stop & Shop – Click Here and go to p. 40 – 60 – particularly p. 60. (It is appalling!)
Also useful is the video of the Planner presentation Click Here move your cursor from minute 30-40. The planner – based on the Veloshin report – says S&S should be torn down !He specifically says S&S should be demolished!
2) Read the S&S litigation settlement document itself – introduced as Resolution 252-2022 mid-Council meeting with no prior notice at the September 20, 2022 meeting. This settlement includes the conceptual plan for both AINR’s. It is not, however, the required AINR redevelopment plan which has never been brought to either Council or the Planning Board. That means that this AINR has never advanced to the point of having a redevelopment plan. It is nevertheless problematic: the settlement does stipulate proposed facilities that the public has ever since found to be unacceptable!
The settlement itself is in the Minutes Packet for the Council’s 9/20/2022 meeting, Go to Click Here and scroll to pp. 175 – 235.
But too much to read ? Then the diagrams of the conceptual plan for both AINR’s can be seen on pp. 206-208 of the settlement as it appears in the 9/20 minurtes packet. Readers, do at least check these diagrams out! they are what is infuriating the neighbors!
3) Do read the short resolution designating Crossroads Companies as the 6-month only conditional designated redeveloper – passed the same night – it is at Resolution 249-2022 if you Click Here
4) Finally, take the time to watch the 8 reports given by the conveners of the 8 resident groups who gathered in the Library for the Master Plan Kick-off on June 14. These reports cumulatively provide Town officials with resident views about what are Teaneck assets and what and who needs to be included in the new Master Plan – This video comes as close to providing a consensus resident view as exists. Do click on it below and/or review the recent Voices article that organized a summary of that meeting (Click Here for that Voices edition)
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