December 8, 2008

Letter to the Editor of the West Essex Herald Tribune

In 2001 the Planning Board of Livingston after numerous nights of hearings rejected an application (by a vote of 6 to 1) of a local builder (TMB Partners) to build a medical arts office building on the site of Tutor Time (previously Max’s restaurant, previously Don’s Restaurant) because the project was found to be too large and out of character with the surrounding neighborhoods in the area.  The property in question lies on the border between Livingston and Millburn Townships.

Now TMB Partners is seeking to develop the same property plus another residential lot which totals 4.25 acres with a much more ambitious project:  a medical arts building and two mid-rise apartment buildings (73 feet high) housing approximately 80-100 families.

Nothing has significantly changed since 2001, except for the building of four one family residential properties on South Orange Avenue across from the proposed project.  Yet when TMB Partners sued Livingston alleging that Livingston had an obligation to allow development of affordable housing units in the Township, the Township caved in by agreeing to propose an amendment to its master plan and to amend Town ordinances to allow structures on the site as high as 73 feet and to allow a density on the property which would allow 100 residential units as well as a medical office building.   

If the master plan is amended and the owner’s project approved, Livingston’s obligation to build affordable housing would be satisfied to the extent of 20 affordable housing units (the remaining 80 units would be market rate).  Yet this alone is not a sufficient basis to ignore sound land use planning. We oppose this project because it is clearly inconsistent with the type of development in the immediate area as the Livingston Planning Board concluded only a few years ago when a much less intensive use of the property was under consideration.

We urge the Township of Livingston to apply sound land use principles and to reject consideration of an amendment to its master plan and proposed  amendments to its ordinances that would allow such excessive and inconsistent development of this narrow piece of property on South Orange Avenue.

Richard Goldsmith

11 Rippling Brook Drive

Short Hills, NJ 07078

973-467-4558

richard@lshcoalition.com