Controversial development of North Plainfield property may begin soon
Published on 8 Jun 2009 at 12:19 pm.
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By MARK SPIVEY • STAFF WRITER Courier News
NORTH PLAINFIELD — The controversial development of the borough’s Villa Maria property may be about to begin after more than seven years of delays, debate and public outcry.
The Borough Council Monday will vote on a zoning ordinance that would allow the property’s owner, Glen Rock-based development firm Watchung Hills at North Plainfield LLC, to construct 160 age-restricted housing units there. Council approval of the ordinance likely would force Watchung Hills to scrap a proposal to build approximately 50 single-family homes on the site, a plan that currently is pending before the borough planning board, in favor of a scaled-down version of a prior proposal to build a development for residents age 55 and older.
“This ordinance, if it were to go into effect, would still give the developer an opportunity to change his plans in conformity with the new (regulations),” borough Administrator Dave Hollod said.
AN IMPERFECT SOLUTION
The 17-acre site at 641 Somerset St., which sits on the foothills of the Watchung Mountains near the spot where the borders of Somerset County municipalities North Plainfield, Green Brook and Watchung meet, was the home of a sanitarium as early as 1879. The Servants of the Holy Infancy of Jesus, an order of nuns now known as the Servants of the Holy Child Jesus, bought and renovated the main building in 1938 and converted it to a nursing home for women.
Suffering from financial and staffing shortages, the nuns in 2002 announced they were merging their operation with that of another religious order in Pennsylvania. But development plans on the land have proceeded painfully slowly since — Monday’s zoning vote is at least the third in six years that has come before the Borough Council.
Residents traditionally have been almost unanimous in expressing hope that the land could be purchased by the borough or county and converted to parkland or otherwise preserved, as the plot is the only significant piece of open space the borough has left. But municipal officials said the borough didn’t have the financial strength to buy it outright, nor did recent efforts to coax Somerset County onto the scene yield results.
“We have talked to many different county officials and were basically told at various times, in a politely veiled way, that Somerset County has no interest in purchasing this land for open space at this point — none whatsoever,” said Borough Council President Frank “Skip” Stabile. “I’ve noticed many other parcels the county has purchased have geographic links to other areas of open space, making them contiguous, or more importantly, a lot of them are farms.”
Stabile said that while he doesn’t necessarily speak for his fellow council members, he views the age-restricted proposal to be the more viable of the two plans.
“I don’t think anyone is under the delusions that either solution is perfect, but I think one has potentially more flaws in it than the other,” he said. “In my mind, (the age-restricted development) is a superior choice over basically what would be another unrestricted neighborhood up there. I’m very leery of pumping more children into our school system.”
Watchung Hills CEO Robert McNerney did not return a phone call seeking comment, but Hollod said he believes the developer’s alternate plans for age-restricted housing would consist of three- to four-story, approximately 45-foot buildings with about 25 units apiece.
A WAR OF ATTRITION
The 160-unit plan before the council is scaled back considerably from previous plans for 360, 280 and 225 units, but members of a large, vocal grassroots movement continue to insist that any construction there would harm one of Central Jersey’s most congested municipalities. The borough had 7,565 people per square mile as of the 2000 U.S. Census, a figure many times greater than the Somerset County and state averages of 976 and 1,134, respectively.
Even beyond overpopulation or traffic concerns, however, members of the North Plainfield Citizens For Community Rights (NPCCR) — a community organization recently celebrating its second birthday after being established to rally against Villa Maria development — agreed that there are many other reasons residents are opposed to the plan.
“In essence, the destruction of the Villa Maria is the destruction of our history. Plus, this is our last open space, and developing it could prove to be an ecological disaster,” said Thalia Saloukas, an NPCCR founding member, alluding to the site’s nearly 130-year history and its location near the mouth of the Stony Brook. “It’s not the will of the people.”
Robert Gatto, another NPCCR founding member who unsuccessfully ran for mayor last November, called the seven-year battle a “war of attrition” waged between residents and the borough. Gatto echoed a common sentiment among organization members in suggesting that their voices are not being heard by municipal leaders.
“The public has been very clear and very vocal over a very long period of time that they do not want this property developed, and I think there were very many opportunities to prevent this,” Gatto said. “It appears that the government did not want to listen to the people, and now we’re stuck with someone who wants to develop in our town.”
Gatto said a large number of residents plan to attend Monday’s meeting, determined to voice their displeasure even if it’s becoming clear that development is just about inevitable.
“We are going to see this through to the end,” he said, “no matter its result.”
Stabile said he was aware of the public’s concerns and suggested that residents might be surprised by how many of them actually are reflected in the proposed ordinance.
“I know a lot of people would have liked to see this be a park,” he said, “but their concerns were taken into account, noted and integrated into the new proposal.”
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