The first time we heard that 410 Main Street in West Orange would be redeveloped was in April 2021. Nearby residents were notified last minute of a hybrid presentation by the developer’s design team, hosted by his lawyers.
The scale of the proposed building was obscene. It was a building you’d expect to find in Jersey City, the city where the LLC that owns the property is registered. My neighbors and I felt threatened by the proposal and knew it would ruin our neighborhood in West Orange.
Over the last three years, we watched the single-family house that once stood at the corner of Park Drive North and Main Street since 1789 suffer irreparable damage from neglect. We saw the house vandalized and abused. We made many calls to the Township about squatters and rodents, about neglected property maintenance, about unsafe conditions that endangered adjacent homes and pedestrians on its sidewalk. At one point, the house was a serious fire hazard because of the dozens of trash bags stored on its porch.
In the last year, the owner sold the property to himself. The owner of record changed from one LLC to another, both owned by Moishe Sugar. We watched with sorrow as the house was quickly demolished. Years of memories and regrets were destroyed in a couple of days.
There’s a revised plan for 410 Main, scheduled to be heard by the West Orange Planning Board on June 5 at 7:30 p.m. While its scale is less obscene, the building still poses a serious threat to the safety and well-being of our neighborhood.
Mr. Sugar is seeking two ‘C’ variances from the Planning Board: One variance is to build 33 percent larger and use 22 percent more land than what his lots are zoned for. The other is to provide fewer than the required parking spaces to the renters who will live there. He’s also situated his building’s one driveway on Park Drive North, which is a one-way street. Every car that exits his building must drive up and around the Park Drive loop to get to Main Street.
To date, we’ve collected 150 physical signatures on the attached petition. Although the document is not admissible to the Planning Board in lieu of testimony, our petition clearly demonstrates that residents of this neighborhood oppose this building. None of us thinks this building would benefit our neighborhood.
We’ve shared our concerns with the Older Adults Advisory Board regarding the safety and well-being of the seniors who have lived on the Park Drive Loop for 40-plus years as well as those who live at Degnan House, 200 feet away. We reached out to the Pedestrian Safety Advisory Board and representatives of Vision Zero to express our concerns for pedestrians and motorists. We are worried about our children who walk to Edison School and for many others whose school buses stop in front of the property.
We remain united and hope the Planning Board hears us.
Attend the Planning Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. on June 5, 2024 here.
For more information, follow @410MainStreetWO on Facebook.
BY MK ADAMS
WEST ORANGE RESIDENT
READ THE PETITION
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