Public officials float “trial balloons” all the time.
But on Saturday morning the balloons were real, for the benefit of Morristown zoning board members who must decide whether a proposed apartment complex will fly.
To boost its chances, the Silverman Group has pared its plans for the Turtle Road project, eliminating the top floor and six units.
That would bring it down to 40 apartments and two stories, atop a mostly underground two-level parking garage, on what is now a vacant 1.44-acre parking lot.
Red balloons floated at the project’s revised 35-foot-height on Saturday, so board members could ascertain how visible the apartments would be to residents in the neighboring Convent Mews and Village at Convent Station condos.
“I think it’s a great tool to help us visualize what the [building] mass is going to be,” said board Chairman Cary Lloyd.
“We try to do so much digitally,” added town Planner Phil Abramson. “But there’s no replacement for being here… There’s only so much a 3D model can depict.”
Michael Tobia, planner for the developer, had urged the board to make this rare road trip, dubbed “The Turtle Tour” by Abramson. Construction will start almost immediately if the board approves the project on Oct. 7, 2015, Tobia said.
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The project no longer needs a height variance; 35 feet is allowed. But variances still are required to permit housing to be built in the office/business zone, and to exceed density limits for a parcel of that size, Tobia indicated. Present zoning allows for seven- or eight townhouses, he said.
Additionally, the developer has agreed to install a sidewalk along its property on Turtle Road.
Michael Leavy and Larry Cohen were the only board members who could not attend the hour-long site visit, a civil affair that included gluten-free chocolate chip cookies baked by 10-year-old Emma Lacz, daughter of Dan Lacz from the Silverman Group.
Area residents last year successfully opposed a daycare center pitched for the site. Some of them came out for Saturday’s walk-through. Reaction was mixed.
“I think they did a good job of addressing the major concerns I heard at the meetings,” Abby Moller of the Convent Mews condos said of the latest plans.
Another resident, Jim Wright, said the scaled-down apartment plan is “marginally better, but I still don’t like it.”
For starters, he was skeptical that tall trees providing a visual buffer will survive the construction, as promised by the Silverman team. He also objects to the project’s density and design, and to traffic he fears it will generate.
When he bought his condo 25 years ago, Wright “did not expect high-rise, high-density apartments” in his backyard.
Convent Mews resident Tracey Goldmann said she wants a provision in writing protecting the trees.
Contending that residents were allowed to run roughshod over the daycare hearings, the developer sued the town.
But Abramson, the town planner, said public input has helped inform the zoning board.
“It’s a really great neighborhood that really cares, and is willing to spend the time. If neighbors didn’t share their observations, maybe the board would not have approached this in the same way,” he said.
“The process is working.”
The project is on lot 5 which is zoned residential.