{"id":1274,"date":"2023-08-11T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2024-12-23T04:01:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T04:01:50","slug":"what-presidential-candidates-need-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=1274","title":{"rendered":"Residents Get Another Look at Revised Lackawanna Plaza Redevelopment Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Montclair residents brought questions about gentrification, housing, and traffic and pedestrian to a community meeting held on Tuesday, August 8th, regarding the Lackawanna Plaza Redevelopment Plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens attended the meeting held in the auditorium at Glenfield Middle School, where Fourth Ward Councilor David Cummings, Planning Director Janice Talley, and consultant Ira Smith from Smith Maran Architecture + Interiors were speakers. Professional planner Keenan Hughes from Phillips Preiss and Traffic Engineer Joseph Fishinger from Brightview Engineering were expected to be present at the meeting, but they were absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith gave a presentation highlighting changes made to the Lackawanna Plaza Redevelopment plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe presentation you\u2019re about to see is the product of what the Planning Board heard and said. They delivered a very long report with comments and recommendations,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith went through slides that illustrated the new plan as \u201cleaner and greener,\u201d and with \u201cmore robust historic preservation requirements.\u201d The revised plan was downsized from 375 residential units to 300.\u00a0 The heights of all five buildings were reduced. Three of the five buildings were reduced from six stories tall to five stories. There is an additional open space and a new pedestrian passageway.
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Residents listen to Lackawanna Plaza redevelopment plan presentation. (MARIA MONICA FERNANDEZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Smith also showed slides to explain the location of the proposed supermarket for the property, the study of traffic flow, and the solar light studies during winter and summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis plan is deeply influenced and responds to the report well as follow-up conversations that Talley has had with the councilors. I\u2019ve had a chance to meet with most of the councilors as well for the past several months,\u201d added Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These changes, among others, were\u00a0previously<\/a>\u00a0presented in a\u00a0webinar<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, July 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummings spoke of how 20% of the planned housing units would be designated affordable housing. He said he was still in conversations with\u00a0BDP Holdings<\/a>, the property owner, to define the percentage of workforce and veteran housing on the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is not definite. There are still a lot more conversations to go with this development,\u201d added Cummings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions about the Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents asked the speakers to use precise language for the structures presented in the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith went through the numbers to explain how they got the measurement of each store of the buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t normally go into this level of detail because people lose patience and it helps them to see the map. I Invite anyone who wants to contact Janice or me; you can talk more about this in detail,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Architect and consultant Ira Smith during his presentation at the community meeting.\u00a0 (MARIA MONICA FERNANDEZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People at the meeting questioned the role of the town government in the proposed plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur town needs to be protected from pollution, traffic, and gentrification. Three hundred apartments are too many. Nobody asked the Fourth Ward if they wanted this kind of density,\u201d said one resident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another concern was the percentage of the units destined for affordable housing, workforce housing, and short-term rentals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo maximize the number of affordable units and the number of workforce units, we included the short-term rentals in the mathematical population,\u201d answered Talley. \u201cIf we have a total of 300 units, 20 percent of those 300 units are affordable, 10 percent are workforce. Of the remainder, 10 percent can be short-term rentals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(From left) Councilor David Cummings, resident Reina Smith, Ira Smith, and Janice Talley. Reina Smith, who lives a block from Lackawanna Plaza,\u00a0 shared concerns about the sunlight access with the proposed building.\u00a0 (MARIA MONICA FERNANDEZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The future of some businesses operating in Lackawanna Plaza was also discussed. Smith shared that one of the buildings in the plan (building C) has been identified as a good location for restaurants and retail units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is possible Pineapple Express will find a new home there,\u201d said Smith. Smith also shared that the TD Bank, currently located on the property, will be relocated to a designated space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talley added that the plan does not permit any drive-through uses, \u201cbut if TD Bank comes up with a kiosk system, that\u2019s something that would be presented to the cycling approval,\u201d said Talley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were questions about the management of the project\u2019s open space and maintaining public access to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe public open space in this project is not owned by the township. It will be owned by the developer. It will be managed by this developer, but the developer will have to ensure those open space areas are open to the public,\u201d said Talley. \u201cHow will he propose to manage it?\u00a0 That will be up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talley said there needs to be an appropriate mechanism to ensure open spaces are available to the public and to allow for public events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on tonight, the council should know that the community has some more concerns based on the current plan,\u2019 said Cummings, adding that\u00a0the plan presents compromises with the community, but there has also been pushback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummings said there were financial benefits that could come from the plan, but expressed concerned\u00a0about the grocery store yet to be named and the impact on affordable housing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy concern is those residents who will be moving out of current affordable housing. Will those places stay for them? So that\u2019s where you get to the ultimate gentrification, but it goes to what can the council do?\u00a0 How do you ensure those properties stay for them?\u201d said Cummings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See Story<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montclair residents brought questions about gentrification, housing, and traffic and pedestrian to a community meeting held on Tuesday, August 8th, regarding the Lackawanna Plaza Redevelopment Plan.\u00a0 Dozens attended the meeting held in the auditorium at Glenfield Middle School, where Fourth Ward Councilor David Cummings, Planning Director Janice Talley, and consultant Ira Smith from Smith Maran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[17,62,68,61],"class_list":["post-1274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-print","tag-human-rights-post","tag-legislature-post","tag-local-journalism-post","tag-new-jersey-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}