Tenants of apartments proposed for Martin Luther King Avenue shouldn’t count on too much basement storage.
That’s reserved for the Whippany River.
Plans call for “flood vents” in a crawl space on the lower, eastern side of the building.
That’s where “flood waters, as they rise, should they rise up near the building, they would enter in through a flood vent on this edge of the foundation, and fill in the crawl space,” project engineer Brett Skapinetz told the Morristown planning board during a three-hour virtual meeting on Thursday.
Scotto Holdings LLC. of Morristown seeks site plan approval for 15 apartments in a three-story structure designed to resemble a “stacked townhouse,” on just under one acre at 81-87 MLK Ave. in the town’s Second Ward.
The back of the property borders the river. Firemen in rowboats rescued area residents a decade ago when the river surged after Tropical Storm Irene, flooding the Bethel AME Church, Martin Luther King Avenue and the Cauldwell playground.
Flood concerns scuttled plans for affordable housing on a vacant riverside tract, nearby at Coal Avenue and Center Street (now Bishop Nazery Way). A parking lot for Calvary Baptist Church was built instead.
Skapinetz outlined plans to re-engineer the apartment site to boost its rear elevation. About 30 trees also would be planted (after eight are removed) to provide a natural buffer.
The state Department of Environmental Protection must sign off on flood mitigation elements, he said.
Skapinetz and architect Karen Luongo got plenty of feedback from board members and town officials on Thursday.
An emergency generator would be a good idea, advised town Planner Phil Abramson, citing the Irene flood.
In the spirit of the day — Earth Day — he also suggested a charging area for electric vehicles in the 23-space parking lot, and green design features beyond the “absolute minimum.”
Others questioned the color scheme, the “busy” array of doors (one for each apartment), and the faux-townhouse motif.
“They’re really just apartments, not townhouses,” said Mayor Tim Dougherty.
“I don’t see something like this anywhere else in Morristown,” board Chairman Joe Stanley added.
Plans show six two-bedroom apartments and nine single-bedroom units. How many of them will be designated as affordable units, and where they will be located, is to be determined, said project attorney Lawrence Calli.
The project needs waivers of standards for ceiling heights, roof pitch and window transparency, a privacy issue for the first floor.
Vacant, dilapidated structures would be demolished, said Luongo. The site spans four adjacent lots. Records indicate they were purchased for a combined total of about $1.4 million.
Scotto Properties, which is affiliated with Scotto Holdings, is a partner in Morristown’s M Station office redevelopment. The Scotto family’s holdings here include George & Martha’s American Grille, the Office Tavern Grill and the Town bar + restaurant.
A least six designs have been contemplated for the Martin Luther King Avenue site since 2018, according to Luongo, the architect.
“We really feel we’ve done our homework here…we took seriously that this is a transitional stretch” of Morristown, she said.
“This was not drawn on the back of a napkin,” said Calli, the project lawyer. “It was in the works for quite some time. It’s a responsible and mindful development.”
More testimony is scheduled for June 17, 2021, at a special meeting via Zoom.
