The Montclair Township Council changed up its venue, meeting last night at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University. Despite the free parking in the attached garage, made available through voucher tickets handed out to attendees, and perhaps because of the downpours earlier in the evening, attendance was light. First Ward Councilor William Hurlock was nonetheless pleased that a facility in his ward could host the meeting.
Most of the ordinances (both first- and second-reading) and all of the resolutions passed unanimously, but a few were subjected to deliberation.
Eastern Gateway Redevelopment Plan
The hearing for the important second-reading ordinance amending the Eastern Gateway redevelopment plan for the area around Bloomfield Avenue and Pine Street was continued for the July 9 conference meeting, based on public input. First, resident William Scott said in public comment that he was unsure whether or not the plan also included the Lackawanna Plaza area, which was the issue of a resolution authorizing the Montclair Planning Board to study it as an area in need of redevelopment. Mayor Jackson explained that it only referred to the area around the Montclair Mews.
“I appreciate the description, and that is my point,” Scott said to the mayor. “The ordinance that’s been identified in tonight’s agenda doesn’t kind of give me the clarity and the understanding of what amendment you’re going to be speaking about.” Scott said that the generalities didn’t give enough specific details to the public.
Then, in the hearing for the ordinance, Tessa Schultz of the Montclair Housing Commission presented the commission’s recommendations for the Eastern Gateway redevelopment based on conversations they had with developer Richard Poulton about how to develop the area next to the Montclarion, which he owns. Twenty percent of the new apartments would be set aside for affordable rental housing; of that 20 percent, half would be located on site, with the other half achieved by extending the affordability restrictions of the 12 low-income units that currently exist in the Montclarion. Schultz also recommended that the current low-cost units, the affordability controls of which expire in 2019, be renewed for as long as possible concurrently with when the new units are made available, and that Poulton was agreeable to the idea. At that point, Fourth Ward Councilor Renée Baskerville proposed continuing the hearing on the ordinance at the next meeting so the council could review the recommendations from the housing commission in full.
Lululemon Facade Delays Open
A new project in Montclair Center was also the subject of a resolution explained by Township Attorney Ira Karasick in the pre-meeting. Area residents eagerly looking forward to the opening of the Lululemon exercise wear chain store, the seventh such store in New Jersey, have to wait a little longer since work on the new store’s façade was stopped owing to its encroachment into township property along South Park Street and along both Bloomfield Avenue and the opposite end of the building near Leone’s. Karasick thought a license permitting encroachment of the façade, which is not part of the outer wall, would be sufficient to get the remodeling done.
“We also would receive a payment, which we have been negotiating,” Karasick said. “We haven’t quite fixed the amount; we’re close . . . it’s in excess of $6,000.” Karasick, who figured out a rough amount based on the estimated 47 to 48 square feet the encroachment would take up. He recommended to the council that Township Manager Marc Dashield to determine the final exact amount, which could go to ongoing improvements on South Park Street.
Dashield, responding to a question from Second Ward Councilor Robin Schlager about benches for the streetscape, said that the money Montclair gets from property owners the Ridge Group could pay for benches.
The resolution to grant the Ridge Group the license for the new Lululemon store was passed 7-0.
Council To Pay Bill For Neighborhood Child Care Center’s Construction Costs
The town council also advanced on first-reading ordinances aimed at regulating property owners, one to get landowners with abandoned properties to take care of them and another to get property owners to take greater responsibilities for law violations committed on their properties, as had been discussed at the June 11 conference meeting. It also passed a resolution – also discussed on June 11 – to pay RJ Michaels & Co. Inc. $15,946.39 for unpaid work on 11 Pine Street. Mayor Jackson noted with lament that Neighborhood Child Care Center’s misuse of a grant had never happened in Montclair before.
The town introduced an ordinance appropriate $210,000 from capital surplus to fund refurbishment costs for recycling vehicles and to install camera surveillance on Greenwood Avenue, as a response to shootings near Union Gardens.
More Montclair Schools Strategic Plan Criticism
Meanwhile, the Board of Education’s approval of the new Strategic Plan promoted by Schools Superintendent Penny MacCormack continued to generate bad vibes, as resident Marcella Simadiris complained before the council that the school board had cut her off at an earlier meeting while she was trying to present factual educational information and refused to engage in dialogue when she tried to ask them questions at the school board meeting the night, which she believed to be in violation of Robert’s Rules of Order. “I’m not sure if anybody on the board is an expert on Robert’s Rights,” she said, making an erroneous reference to Robert’s Rules, “but . . . am I allowed to ask questions?” Mayor Jackson said it was inappropriate for the council to comment on the board’s practices.
Simadiris went further, sharply criticizing the board for adopted the test-based strategic plan, calling it “disheartening,” and made spurious comments about Dr. MacCormack. “This superintendent was selected without any input from the public,” she said. I don’t even know how to get her credentials.” She vowed to file an Open Public Records Act request to do so and, after complaining that she failed to get answers from Dr. MacCormack after e-mailing said questions to her without a promised reply and alerting the mayor and council members that she would e-mail them the same questions.
“I showed it to everybody,” Simadiris said of the plan, “very educated people, and they have a hard time [understanding it]. The perplexity of it is ridiculous. You find yourself in a fog constantly.” She added that there was a conflict of interest in having someone associated with a charter school on the Board of Education, though she did not specify whom she was referring to, and she said that she needed studies that assessment narrows achievement gaps.
Buzz DVDs
In a lighter moment, Caldwell residents Robert and Janet Markman, who respectively video-recorded and photographed Buzz Aldrin’s visit to Montclair on June 2, presented DVDs of their account to all ten council officers, including Karasick, Dashield and Township Clerk Linda Wanat.
The Last Supper, minus several characters and with Robin Schlager in the role of Christ.
re: the light attendance: Maybe you noted it in advance, but I never saw, anywhere, that it was going to be moved. I wonder how well this was advertised.
Nothing quite conveys the idea of the revitalization of a downtown shopping district like an exercise wear store, I admit. Especially one whose construction encroaches on municipal property. But wouldn’t then a Modell’s, say, have better served the needs of the community?
As I misunderstood the encroachment issue initially, I’ll share my edification. The encroachment varies anywhere from 1 inch to 7 inches along the length of a 120 foot wall. It is a practical solution to a structural problem being resolved properly.
Great theater. A complete farce: “Mayor Jackson said it was inappropriate for the council [Town Council] to comment on the board’s [Board of Education’s] practices.’
No transparency. No accountability. No leadership.
A fanciful staging for pictures in a dark theater with mostly empty seats. Those who did attend were essentially told not to ask questions and not to expect relevant information. The elected officials got their photo-op. The handful of citizens were seated literally and figuratively in the dark.
Can Montclair really be proud of this road show?
Maybe it was the novelty, but found the experience totally positive for me.
MSU was an excellent host and it is a really great facility. A school executive welcomed everyone and talked briefly about MSU’s relationship with the township. Student guides to greet you & validate your parking. Even picked up a performance 2013-14 schedule.
Free parking & bus stops next door, short walk to train. Council started on time, seats extremely comfortable, lighting very complementary and easy on the eyes. Acoustics great.
My only gripe was that it was Liquor License Renewal Night and I thought it would have been a nice touch for the Council to comp the public on at least the wine & beer.
Need to do this again.