SHARE:  


Land Use Decisions - What's Going On?


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

4/25/2023

Contents:


A Note about this late Teaneck Voices Edition


Land Use Decisions - What's Going On?


  • Stop & Shop litigation settlement? dismissal? next steps?
  • Beverly Road AINR and the overdue Belle Avenue Flooding Fixes
  • DPW - perennial Q: a new home or cleanup of the muni mess
  • The new Cedar Lane Bridge - not yet real public involvement
  • Holy Name expansion - perpetual site plan hearings or a negotiated settlement?
  • State funding for Herrick Park but stalled by the Planning Board
  • Route 4 Bridge over CSX/Palisades - when and what?
  • 61 Church plans - answers for now but not from Town officials


May 2nd Forum on Development in Teaneck - Together We Are Strong!


The Still-to-be Adopted Municipal Budget - Clear Explanations Please!


This Week in Teaneck - 4/25-30, 2023


Revaluation Information Meeting - Rodda Center - Thursday 4/27


Announcements:


  • Applications for Site Plan Review Advisory Board
  • Drive Electric - Earth Day - 4/25
  • Senior Health & Resource Fair - Rodda 4/26
  • Career Exploration Internships - 5/19
  • Teaneck's 5K Race - 5/21


Contacting Teaneck Voices

A Note about this late Teaneck Voices Edition


It is the goal of Teaneck Voices to make its editions available to its readers early every week, preferably no later than Monday evening. This edition will reach you late on Tuesday. Clearly, the municipal issues now of greatest concern are those involving the status of the many important land use processes/decisions that are either pending or are have presumably been decided/resolved.

But for most of them, the actual status has not been publicly released. In a few cases that is because they are legitimately being addressed behind closed doors. But within the past 48 hours it has become clear to Voices that public information which should be widely available or released has not been. We have been working virtually round the clock to pursue every avenue we could discern to either get such information released or somehow to obtain and release important data so that we can at least pose for our readers' questions that the public should be able to get answered. So, here is our best shot on where you can get some of the data now, when we expect to know more and what remains unavailable.

Land Use Decisions - What's Going On?

The Stop & Shop Settlement and What's Next?


The public has received NO Information whatsoever about the status of the S&S litigation settlement since the massive settlement document/resolution was suddenly walked in for approval at Council on 9/20 and two days later a similar process occurred at the Planning Board. Strong negative public reaction to AINR-like stipulations in the settlement were claimed to be "refuted" by Town counsel. But then in the 11/22 meeting following the election an obscure amendment to the settlement resolution slipped through Council.


Literally no public meeting mention of the S&S settlement has been made in the 5 subsequent months. But, in fact, much has actually been occurring. In December 2022, Mayor Dunleavy signed the settlement but none of the other 5 signatories did so. Court records show considerable controversy among land owners until mid-March. Then all signatories signed and the S&S attorney asked for the litigation's dismissal in a document stating that all claims were dismissed and no one owed anyone anything.


Via OPRA and other document identification by alert residents (not officials) Teaneck Voices has been able to provide its readers with all of these very key documents on its own Teaneck Voices website which can be accessed if you Click Here


The existence of None of these documents has been announced publicly despite there having been 3 Council meeting since the settlement was signed and one meeting since the litigation's dismissal.


What happens next is impossible to forecast. There are reliable reports that there is an officially organized process now underway to convert the S&S settlement into a redevelopment plan for both the settlement-referenced AINR's. Will the redevelopment plan for them now pop up at an upcoming Planning Board meeting? Are forecasts accurate that a proposed ordinance to provide secretly-chosen developer Crossroads Companies with a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) deal will soon follow? Meanwhile how valid are suggestions that there are a myriad of legally serious missteps already embedded in these previously unreleased documents? Has the new Council been fully apprised of all these alleged developments, or have the Town's professional staffs left Council out of the loop as well?


Beverly Road AINR and the overdue Belle Avenue Flooding Fixes


Another case of failure to communicate and then act. Despite the extraordinarily articulate and persistent leadership of the Belle Avenue flood victims neighborhood, many fear that the Beverley Road AINR development plans may be entwined with why the Town can't get itself organized to get Green Acres approval to finish the proposed Sagamore Park flood mitigation. These long-time floods are devastating. Are the inexcusable 3 decades of municipal promises and then looking the other way going to continue due to administrative timidity? Council, you can't you fix this? Talk to us - what's what?


DPW location-a perennial Q - new home or remedy the mess?


For more than 50 years Teaneck has been pledging action on the inexcusably dangerous and contaminated recycle center on River Road. (In 2016, then Planner Richard Preiss said it posed an unacceptable and imminent risk to employees and residents) In late October 2022, just before the 2022 election, the Manager brought a group of DPW workers forward at a Council meeting and promised them a new work facility - in a new Leonia shared project - in 2 years . Since then radio silence.

Rumors fly around continuously - the Leonia deal is on, or off or awaiting resolution of either policy or personality differences. There are complicated (but not impossible) issues involved in putting a recycle center in a protected park. Does Teaneck have a plan B? In 2019 the Town designated this 1600 River Road public land to be an area in need of redevelopment (an AINR). 4 years later, nada! Those of our readers who take their wastes to the Center and pay taxes do deserve an update. Don't we need a timeline for definite remedial action?


The proposed new Cedar Lane Bridge across the Hackensack


Unbeknownst to most, there recently was a "Community Stakeholder" virtual meeting to allow the engineers designing the new bridge to describe their plans and hear stakeholder views.

Problem: the internet access address was not sent to some who signed up and all who had planned to attend were originally given the wrong virtual address. Reportedly the meeting eventually went forward and Teaneck Voices has been promised a copy of the meeting's Power Point with design options and related discussion. (We will share it with our readers when it arrives.) No more public meetings on the bridge until Fall of 2023.

Why does public access and involvement so consistently go awry?


Holy Name Zone-No mediation settlement; HNMC hearings with no internet


On Wednesday night (4/26) the next in the interminable series of hearings begun in October 2022 will continue on the proposed site plan for a day care center on the controversial Holy Name expanded hospital zone . A total of 5 residents have attended the last 3 HNMC hearings. The Chair has mandated that there be no internet access and that the meetings occur at the Rodda Center instead of the Council Chambers. 3 of the 11 Planning Board members cannot attend because they have conflicts as did the PB attorney before he left to be a judge.


At long last the Town has installed a fixed camera and the hearings now at least show up on the Town website, if someone presses the Clerk's office to post them. .


The public is precluded from knowing what is and is not happening in the mediation that is supposed to bring the hospital and its residential neighbors to agreement. But enough is enough and the public deserves a full update on a stand off that just keeps going. Or, alternatively how about a public communication that reports an agreement that can then allow a PB transition to having hospital expansion plans focus on how the plan will meet storm water standards and all the rest of the real issues that land use standards themselves should involve.


Herrick Park Improvement - Planning Board stalls and we pay


Time and again, in public meeting contexts residents and advisory boards alike ask why won't the Planning Board even discuss what is needed to allow Teaneck be eligible for the millions of Green Acres $ that our contiguous neighboring municipalities receive. Our recreation/open space inventory has to match the state's -- but Chair Bodner refuses to put the issue of open space documentation on the PB agenda.


Now the Town is poised in 2023 to spend more than $1.5M to improve Herrick Park into a reputable park. The Town is applying for much of this to come from Green Acres, but Green Acres is PRECLUDED from actually delivering the first $ of what should be most of that $1.5M. Before our tax dollars go where it does not need to go, residents deserve to know why one official gets to require his board to remain silent about meeting a clear statutory responsibility. Mr. Bodner, what's what?


Route 4 Bridge over CSX/Palisades - when and what?


It is not imminent, but DOT is in direct talks with the Town about the plans to add a lane and a half to Route 4 where the state road crosses over the CSX tracks/Palisade Ave. The plan is now real enough for DOT to start planning how to divert and pay for pieces of protected open space in order to carry out the project. And like the PSEG diversion, that money should come to Teaneck if only we designate equivalent valued public land to open space protection. DOT is now meeting with our administrative leadership. Is there some reason why we, the public, are not hearing about the project?


61 Church Street plans - answers for now but not from Town officials


Why do public officials work so hard to keep the public in the dark about anything to do with land use? Assumedly they don't trust the wider populace to respond coherently and participate constructively.


But this week there is concrete evidence to the contrary.

The proposal to turn a former church on 1.3 acres into a private high school by hugely expanding/redesigning the facility did catch the attention of its neighbors. 61 Church is in an R/S zone and the two initial hearings about approving the D variances this application proposed attracted hundreds of zoom participants.


Communication among private residents built quickly. The neighbors studied the zoning issues, began in-person and zoom meetings which quickly mushroomed into a town-wide grouping, recognized they needed expert legal help, and recruited the extraordinary land use attorney, Gail Price. She attended the second hearing, and would have done applicant witness cross-examination at the next one.


But ten days before the scheduled 4/27 meeting Price met with the applicant attorney and we can only presume to guess the content of that exchange. But we know what happened: not only has the school application been withdrawn but the applicant has ended its purchase contract with the facility's current owner.


Will an applicant with a more appropriate and zone-consistent use now come forward? That is the hope. In any event, the now far-better organized and prepared neighborhood will be an optimal position to participate in any subsequent zoning approval process. And the next developer proponent will have the advantage of working with an informed and competent group of neighbors advocating an enhanced neighborhood. .


And, happily, the neighbors will be particularly well-prepared to participate in the Town's upcoming Forum/Town Hall. Which leads us to the next article

May 2nd Forum on Development in Teaneck

Together We Are Strong!

May 2, 7pm at the Rodda Center – Mark your calendars! Teaneck residents from ALL neighborhoods come together to listen and BE HEARD!


Up till now, almost every time the residents of a Teaneck neighborhood belatedly find out that an apartment building or a large storage unit or segregated housing is being “developed” in their area, they raise their voices in protest: “This isn’t what we moved to Teaneck for!” They address the Council, sometimes the Planning Board, often the Board of Adjustment (Zoning Board) – too often to no avail.


Until last November’s municipal elections, the powers-that-be (Council or Land Use Boards) called them “complainers,” accused of them of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), and too often said, “Nobody else is complaining.”


BUT THAT’S WHERE THEY’RE WRONG!


On streets and avenues and roads all over Teaneck the same thing is happening. But each location has been treated by authorities and neighbors alike, as a silo, a single happening in a single location. But now, these silos and their leaders and neighbors are coming together and joining forces, sharing their tales and experiences, learning how many are in the same boat and deciding to do something about it!!


Our new Council is bringing us together at the Rodda Center at 7PM on Tuesday, May 2 to join together to take back development in Teaneck.


We don’t want to stop development!

·      We want transparency – No Surprises!

Council tell us what you have in mind.

·       We want a say in how our town develops!

·      We want a say in the finances of development! Revenues from smart development are good for us –

PILOT giveaways to developers are not good for us!

·      We want fair development – no environmental racism, no segregated housing – we are one town!


Remember Woody Guthrie’s anthem “Talkin’ Union”? Let’s try this updated version:


“If you want what you got when Teaneck beckoned YOU,

 You gotta talk to the neighbors in the town with you,        

You gotta bring them together with a Council strong       

Cause when we all stick together friends, it won’t be long:                     

You get the development you want, more open space,                            

 Appealing shopping districts, your taxes spent for YOU!”


 What and where are we talking about?

·       The Stop & Shop/American legion Drive AINR (More about this site elsewhere in Teaneck Voices).

·       The Beverly Road/Cedar Lane/Farmers Market AINR

·       The Belle Ave/Beverly Road/Beatrice St. flood-prone area

(adjacent to the AINR)

·       The Holy Name Expansion

·       Multiple sites on State St.

·       The massive apartment buildings on Alfred Ave.

·       The proposed Cannabis facilities on Alfred Ave.

·       Buildings (Holuba/KRE, 1475 Palisade Ave., Avalon Bay on Windsor Road) nestled up against the CSX railroad tracks which carries Bakken oil among other dangerous chemicals

·       The DPW yard and recycle center on River Road

·       The threat of the loss of single-family homes on West Englewood Ave.

·       Cautious optimism: The proposal for a high school at 61 Church Street has been withdrawn (costing the residents of Teaneck legal fees but also serving as a resident development processes training ground).

      

On Sunday, April 16, leaders from many of these groups gathered at a Neighborhood Leadership Meeting on Development to present a summary of what is going on in each of their neighborhoods.


IT WAS EYE-OPENING!! NO NIMBY NEIGHBORHOODS, BUT REPORTS OF INTRUSIVE, HARDSHIP-CAUSING, DANGEROUS DEVELOPMENT IN VIOLATION OF THE MASTER PLAN ACROSS THE TOWNSHIP OF TEANECK!! 


THE DEVELOPMENT IN TEANECK IS SHATTERING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT BETWEEN THE RESIDENTS AND THEIR TOWNSHIP.


AND MORE RESIDENTS ARE DEVELOPING THE COMPETENCE TO CONTRIBUTE TO FINDING BETTER, REGULATION-CONSISTENT ANSWERS.


So make sure to join your neighbors 0n Tuesday, May 2 at 7PM at the Rodda Center to participate in the Teaneck Council’s Development Forum and Town Hall.



SEE YOU THERE!

The Still-to-be Adopted Municipal Budget -

Clear Explanations Please!

This Week in Teaneck - April 17-23, 2023

Planning Board Special Meeting - Tuesday April 25, 2023 7:00 pm at the Rodda Center - in-person only Cancelled


Planning Board Special Meeting - Wednesday April 26, 2023 7:00 pm at the Rodda Center - in-person only

  • Expected agenda is the continuation of the Holy Name proposed Child Care Facility site plan.


Teaneck School Board Regular & Budget Meeting- Wednesday April 26 at 8:00 pm - in person at THS and virtual no zoom information yet available. For agenda Click Here


Board of Adjustment - Thursday April 27 at 7:00 pm by zoom only Click Here and type passcode 612572 for access. Click Here for agenda focused primarily on residential renovation applications except for a D variance multifamily application for a facility on Cedar Lane near the bridge (Note: the 61 Church Street high school application has been withdrawn).


Shade Tree Advisory Board (STAB) - Thursday, April 27 at 7:30 pm - Rodda Center (No other information currently available.)

Revaluation Information Meeting

Teaneck Property Revaluation / Revaluación de la Propiedad

As directed by the Bergen County Board of Taxation and the New Jersey Division of Taxation, the Township of Teaneck is revaluing all taxable real estate for the 2024 tax year to ensure uniform and equitable assessments. The Township has entered into a contract with Appraisal Systems, Inc. to conduct the revaluation program. 

There will be two public meetings held regarding the revaluation at the Richard Rodda Community Center on April 27th and May 25th, 2023 from 7pm-9pm. 

For more information on the revaluation program, visit the Appraisal Systems website here. or Revaluation Brochure-Spanish.pdf 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Township of Teaneck New Jersey - Advisory Board and Statutory Board Application (teanecknj.gov)

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at Click Here. More information & the application are here: Click Here

Contacting Teaneck Voices


By Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com

By Phone: 201-214-4937

By USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

Teaneck Voices' Website is www.teaneckvoices.com


Sign Up Now
Send a Comment
Submit an Article
Editorial Policies
LinkedIn Share This Email