SHARE:  

September’s Revised Master Plan Version:  How Flawed?


PUBLISHED BY TEANECK VOICES

9/16/2024

Contents:

  • September’s Revised Master Plan Version:  How Flawed?
  • 60th Anniversary of Teaneck’s Historic Voluntary Public School Desegregation
  • When will the Belle Avenue Flooding End?
  • Viewing for Marion Baker, husband of Margaret Baker
  • “FOR THE STUDENTS” Board of Education Candidate Slate Kickoff  
  • This Week in Teaneck – September 16 to 22, 2024 Edition
  • Repeat: Teaneck Voices’ 9/13/2024 Article - Special Edition on Master Plan

Announcements

  • LWV BOE Candidate Election Forums - 9/23
  • LWV Council Candidate Forum – 9/30
  • Community Cleanup Day – 10/6
  • NETBPA Board of Education Candidate Forum - 10/8
  • NETBPA Council Candidate Forum – 10/14

Contacting Teaneck Voices:

  • Email: teaneckvoices@gmail.com
  • Phone: 201-214-4937
  • USPS Mail: Teaneck Voices, PO Box 873. at 1673 Palisade Ave. 07666

September’s Revised Master Plan Version:  How Flawed?

A meeting billed as a discussion of the September revision of Teaneck’s draft Master Plan is scheduled to take place at 7:30 Monday evening (9/16) in MP-1 of the Rodda Center. In-person attendance is required in order to be heard. The only direct access to the new version and its “explanation” is at Click Here.


1) Is the September revision Accessible? NO!  


The lead image in this week’s Voices edition is what one of our readers calls the “fuzzy square man” – a little creation of x’s and bars that signals the fact that “the rest of the MP document” through which you have been scrolling is simply not available. Unfortunately, this appears to start on page 55, while the heart of the Plan – the Goals and Objectives – starts on page 61. So, we believe most Town residents will not have been able to get to read the real heart of the document nor the majority of the material which runs to page 118.


That “fuzzy man” is but the very start of the almost insurmountable challenge that Teaneck’s residents faced this weekend in trying to get access to what the Planning Board at its August 19 meeting had unanimously agreed was to be a revision of the August version of our new Master Plan that was responsive to the comments and questions residents had posed at that first MP public hearing.


What we got last Tuesday (9/10) was an MP document with an initial appended Memorandum, “Revisions to the Master Plan, August to September 2024,”  which lists what got changed from August’s version. However, the Memorandum list provides only the page numbers of the changes in the original document, not in the revised document.


So, as we discussed in our special Voices edition last Friday, even those residents who had found a way to download the document then had to figure out how simultaneously to open and sort out pagination in the August document in order to make any use of the 9/12 Planners’ Memorandum that purports to be a guide to the changes made in the September version.  

In addition, completely ignored were all of the 8/16 resident comments about format changes and the need for picture captions that residents said were essential to create an understandable document.


2) Substantive Resident suggestions about fundamental land use decision-making – Essentially ignored 


Many residents said that the MP should reflect the fact that for more than a year Teaneck residents have, whenever speaking publicly, unanimously declared opposition to making Redevelopment and its designation of “blighted” AINR’s regular instruments of land use decision-making. 


Yes, the new September version does briefly and for the first time acknowledge that some residents have “expressed skepticism” about Redevelopment. If the PB disagrees with these resident views, the MP should argue the case. Instead in subtle ways, this version has reinforced that the Redevelopment/AINR processes should in the future be a regular zoning and land use tool.


Voices do not know whether these substantive differences between majority resident comments and the new draft reflect the views of our Planning firm or are the views of a majority of the Planning Board. 


In the light of these major deficiencies, it is Voices’ hope that residents will have at least been able to formulate their suggestions as to how the Planning Board should now move forward with/alter course of this very flawed document. Hopefully, the PB will be willing to listen and adjust its plans accordingly. 


PS: At the end of this edition, Voices has again provided a copy of what it provided to its readers in a 9/13 “Special Edition” before the week-end. It is an alert to the existence of the new September version and access to the Planner’s Memorandum commentary which is tucked in between the PB’s 9/16 agenda and the new MP version – and its fuzzy square man at p. 55.

60th Anniversary of Teaneck’s Historic Voluntary Public School Desegregation

60th Anniversary of Teaneck’s Historic Voluntary Public School Desegregation to be Honored with Historic Marker at Wiliam Cullen Bryant School – the Site of the Central Sixth Grade Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 6pm


For years after the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, cities and towns across the United States were wracked with major discord, up to and including violence, over efforts to provide places of education where children of all races and colors could learn – and socialize – together.


Unlike the Southern states where Jim Crow laws mandated the separation of races (in schools and elsewhere), Teaneck and other Northern municipalities experienced “de facto” segregation: segregation resulting from discrimination in housing. Teaneck, like many communities, saw unprincipled realtors steering Black home-buyers to a single part of town – the Northeast -- and scaring white homeowners in that part of down with threats of falling housing values. By the mid-50’s, with Black celebrities like the singer Al Hibbler and Yankee catcher Elston Howard as new homeowners on Howland Ave. and “white flight” in full sway, the neighborhood school Bryant Elementary School was becoming increasingly populated by children of one race.


Activist community groups like the Teaneck League for Better Schools together with the Teaneck Board of Education, noting the 1954 Supreme Court decision and the growing segregation in the Teaneck Public Schools, decided to take action.


The long and complex story is told in Reginald Dammerell’s 1958 book Triumph in a White Suburb. But basically, two things were necessary for the desegregation effort: 1) A place or places where children of different races could gather together to learn, and 2) A way to get the children to the place or places. The almost universally unsuccessful desegregation attempts, prior to 1964, had placed African-American children from Black schools on school buses and carted them to schools populated by White children. BUSING (the word and the fact) became the hated symbolic “tool” of desegregation.


Teaneck’s plan, developed over several years, addressed both those key conditions. The Board of Education decided to establish a Central Sixth Grade at Bryant School. Every 6th-grade child of every race in Teaneck would climb on a school bus every morning to travel from wherever in town to Bryant School on the corner of Teaneck Road and Tryon Avenue. The element of the plan that required remediation in subsequent years was that the K-5th graders at Bryant (primarily Black youngsters) were distributed by busing among the other 6 elementary schools in town – a recognized burden for 5-11 year-olds and their families.


Despite the recognized flaws in the plan, on May 13, 1964, the courageous *Board of Education, by a vote of 7-2, with the support of Superintendent Harvey Scribner, established the Central Sixth Grade at Bryant School and, thus, launched the first voluntary (and successful) public school desegregation effort in the United States.


On September 8, 1964, the buses rolled up to the Teaneck Public Elementary Schools and the children climbed down and entered their classrooms. Super

intendent Scribner called the Board members: “The buses are in. The kids are OK.”


*Members of the 1964 Board of Education voting YES: Bernard Confer, President; Theodore Ley, Vice-President; Dr. Milton Bell, Ruth Hendricksen, Seymour Herr, Lamar Jones, George Larson. 


Please join the Historic Preservation Commission, the Town Council, and the Board of Education at BRYANT SCHOOL on Wednesday, September 18 AT 6PM for the Placing of a Historic Marker Commemorating THE WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SCHOOL CENTRAL SIXTH GRADE and meet several of the now-grown children who were heroes of that landmark event.

When will the Belle Avenue Flooding End?

It still floods – the decades-long flooding into Belle Avenue and nearby homes continues and surely the prognosis is that the ever heavier rains that accompany climate change will – absent full remediation - lead to more frequent pictures like the one (see below) taken earlier this summer.  

There are 3 steps needed for the true mitigation of this costly neighborhood intrusion:


1) Continued articulate advocacy by Belle Avenue residents like Chris Brown such as was made during G&W at the 9/10 Council meeting (see his image below and listen on the Town video if you Click Here and move the cursor to mon28&50sec.)


 2) Continued clear and focused response to that advocacy such as was made to Mr. Brown from Council and the new Manager (Click Here and move cursor to min45); and 


3) A new focus on expediting the diversion and design approvals by personnel at the State’s DEP that should lead to the placement of the needed overflow tanks under Sagamore Park.

 

These three steps will be the combination that finally ends this inexcusable nightmare!

Viewing for Marion Baker, husband of Margaret Baker

Marion Baker of 1086 Decatur Avenue, a decorated Army Veteran and former member of Teaneck’s Patriotic Observance Advisory Board, passed quietly on Tuesday evening September 10, 2024, after a long illness. He was the beloved husband of Margaret Baker, cherished father of Clarence, Colby, and Carmen, and grandfather of their children. 


Friends and neighbors of Marion Baker and his family are invited to his viewing at Volk Leber Funeral Home, 789 Teaneck Road, on Friday, September 20 from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon and from 6:00 to 8:00 in the evening.

“FOR THE STUDENTS” Board of Education Candidate Slate Kickoff  

Last Thursday evening, the Ethical Culture Society came alive with the vision for the future of the Teaneck Public Schools offered by the 3 dynamic candidates on the “For the Students” slate running for the 3 open seats on the Board of Education: Nadia Hosein, incumbent Jonathan Rodriguez, and Seleene Wong. The evening was emceed by Quron Gee and the candidates were introduced by prominent and respected residents of the town: Hallie Wannamaker, Denise Sanders, Dr. Dennis, Libby Klein, and Dr. Henry Pruitt.


While it is often awkward to label people by ethnicity, race, and/or religion, in a richly diverse town like Teaneck it is critical to recognize the importance of representation of every person – especially every child – who lives in Teaneck. And what diversity these three candidates represent! Nadia Hosein is a Muslim woman who was born in Trinidad. Jonathan Rodriguez is a 4th generation Teaneckian (his 2 sons are 5th generation!) whose mother is Jewish and whose father is Catholic Hispanic. Seleene Wong is a Black woman, daughter of well-known town activists, Lillian and Oscar Lewis. They all are parents of Teaneck Public School students – present, recently graduated, or soon-to-be!


The candidates expressed their enthusiasm for the exciting programs the Public Schools are undertaking, like the International Baccalaureate Program and the expansion of advanced placement courses. And their camaraderie gave all of us a model of united diversity!

This Week in Teaneck – September 16 to 22

If additional information about access and agendas for this week’s public meetings becomes available, we will update our Teaneck Voices website at this post (Click Here) in RED font. 


Planning Board Special Meeting to Discuss MP Revisions – Monday, September 16, 2024, at 7:30 in MP-1 of the Rodda Center. Meeting available by Zoom but with no internet participation at Click Here and add passcode 246050.

  • See related articles in this Voices edition



Board of Education Regular Meeting – Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 8:00 pm in the Student Center at THS and by Zoom if you Click Here. The Agenda is available if you Click Here


Unveiling of the School Desegregation Plaque at Bryant School – Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 6:00 pm at Bryant School, corner of Teaneck Road at Tryon. 


Environmental Commission Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 7:30. By Zoom. For access Click Here and add passcode 720019. For agenda, Click Here


Senior Citizen’s Advisory Board – Thursday, September 19 at 1:30 pm in the Game Room, 2nd floor, at the Rodda Center. No other information is available



Board of Adjustment – Thursday, September 19, 2024, at 7:00 pm – this meeting, though currently scheduled on the website, is almost certain to be canceled.

Repeat: Teaneck Voices’ 9/13/2024 Article - Special Edition on Master Plan

At the August 19th Special Meeting of the Planning Board, the public provided input to the Planning Board and planning consultant Spach Trahan about changes needed to the draft August 2024 Master Plan. The Planning Board scheduled a follow-up special meeting for Monday, September 16. In preparation for that meeting, Teaneck Voices asked the Planning Board to post 1) a list of revisions to the August version 2024 MP version and 2) the revised Master Plan itself. 


They have done so. Teaneck Voices is concerned with 1) the difficulty in accessing the posted material, 2) the content of many of the revisions, and 3) the lack of any revision to the format, and the over-abundance and lack of labeling of the pictures included. 


So we have prepared this Guide to help our readers access and review the revisions that our planners, Phillips, Preiss, Grygiel, Leheny, and Hughes have delivered to the Teaneck Planning Board.


GUIDE


Although there are 4 places on the Township website where the revised September 2024 Master Plan is posted THE BEST SITE WHERE YOU CAN FIND THE LIST OF REVISIONS AND THE SEPTEMBER VERSION OF THE 2024 MASTER PLAN IS UNDER “AGENDAS AND MINUTES.”

  • Google Teanecknj.gov
  • Click on Agendas and Minutes
  • Go to the top of the left-hand column, scroll down to the Planning Board
  • Go to Upcoming Meetings and click on September 16, 2024, 7:30 pm, Master Plan Meeting, Richard Rodda Center
  • Click on Agenda Packet
  • Scroll past the 2-page agenda to arrive at Memorandum 
  • OR you can get directly to this entire 19.2MB tri-part document if you Click Here

NOTE:  The Planners’ Memorandum states: “Note that the listed page numbers are from the August 2024 version of the Master Plan. So, since many page numbers are different in the revised Master Plan, there is NO way to see the actual changes made, except to open the August 2024 Master Plan draft, find the cited page, and then scroll through the September version to find the section in which a revision was made, and then skim the whole section to find the revision.


UNFORTUNATELY, for most readers, YOU CANNOT DO THAT WITH THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT. WHEN YOU REACH PAGE 55 YOUR SCREEN WILL TURN A BLANK GRAY, INDICATING THE DOCUMENT IS TOO LARGE TO BE TRANSMITTED VIA THE WEBSITE. Depending on your device, you may be able to access the entire document. (One Co-editor of Teaneck Voices, while not able to access the document beyond page 55 on their laptop, was able to access the entire document on their iPhone - an extremely difficult way to read 124 pages). For those readers with adequate data space, you can download the document to your computer and may then be able to open the entire document. 


However, in any event, you can review the 30 changes listed in the Memorandum. Teaneck Voices has not had time to review all the revisions because we wanted to get this Guide out to our readers ASAP, but we have reviewed the list and can offer a few general impressions:


  • There have been some proofreading and minor copy editing and the corrections are noted.
  • The 12th revision listed is the insertion of a statement about “skepticism” expressed by “many residents … regarding the use of redevelopment planning tools.” However:
  • There are several revisions to statements about “redevelopment” and “rehabilitation” areas that appear to reinforce their use and the ways that they are used. For example, revision 6 states “revised the definition of the term ‘rehabilitation area’ in the glossary to clarify that no special notice is required pursuant to the LRHL and that the Township may choose to conduct such investigations and public hearings to ensure that the community is aware of the intention for rehabilitation.”
  • Another example of such reinforcement is revision 16, “This Master Plan recognizes the need to balance the use of traditional zoning and development tools with rehabilitation or redevelopment planning tools. In some cases, the latter will be necessary to achieve other goals and objectives of this Master plan, such as the production of affordable housing, the revitalization of business districts, and to allow for greater municipal control over site planning and the provision of public benefits.”

We urge our readers to review the revisions as carefully as time allows in preparation for the Special Planning Board Meeting on Monday, September 16 at 7:30 pm at the Rodda Center.


We Reiterate our Format Concerns


In the August 19 issue of Teaneck Voices, we suggested several Format revisions to make the Master Plan easier to read and digest. None have been made. Here is a brief recounting of the format revisions suggested:

  • Repagination. Remove the Roman numerals from the first 6 pages and begin numbering the first page as page 1. At present locating and/or printing a page in the Master Plan requires the addition of 6 to the page you seek. E.g., to print page 10, you must request page 16.
  • Place the Acknowledgements and the Glossary at the back of the document. People need to reach the meat of the Master Plan right away.
  • Similarly, immediately following the Title Page the Goals and Objectives should be presented. For the Objectives, each Objective should be presented in a concise 2-3 sentences. Please see the 2007 Master Plan.

For further revisions, both original and revised documents should be presented so comparisons can be made easily.


SEE YOU MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 AT 7:30 AT THE RODDA CENTER

We urge all of our readers to be there. IF YOU WISH TO BE HEARD OR TO COMMENT ON THE REVISION, YOU MUST APPEAR IN PERSON



PS: There is a Zoom address for those who must watch/hear remotely. Unfortunately, that Zoom address on the website as we go to press is not clickable. We have made it clickable if you click here and add passcode 246050

Announcements

Contacting Teaneck Voices


Co-Editors: Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler and Dr. Chuck Powers

IT Editor: Sarah Fisher

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