Down to the nitty-gritty: Morris Township planning board hears Abbey redevelopment plan

Architectural rendering of an entrance to RH restoration of The Abbey, July 12, 2021. Screenshot by Kevin Coughlin
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Restoration Hardware’s plan to redevelop a Gilded Age mansion as a furniture showroom and restaurant got the blessing of Morris Township’s governing body last fall.

The nitty-gritty began on Monday.

For more than three hours, the Township planning board heard experts explain traffic, parking and noise-abatement proposals, for what project attorney Frank Vitolo described as an “unprecedented collaboration” that promises tax revenue and jobs while preserving an “architectural treasure.”

Without the RH transformation, Vitolo said, Alnwick Hall–better known as The Abbey—probably would “continue to decay until its demise.”

Applicant Madison Avenue Urban Renewal LLC, a subsidiary of RH, seeks site plan approval, along with variances for front yard setbacks, wall heights, signs and the number of tandem parking spaces.

A new feature, a “ruin,” should preserve additional portions of the historic structure, according to Vitolo.  More details on that are anticipated at the next hearing, on Aug. 16, 2021.

Architectural renderings of Restoration Hardware (RH) restoration of The Abbey in Morris Township, July 2021. Screenshot by Kevin Coughin

Modeled after a 16th-century British manor, Alnwick Hall was built on Madison Avenue’s “Millionaire’s Row” in 1904. Since then, The Abbey has housed a church, an office complex and, in 2017, Mansion in May tours for charity.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the four-acre site has had no permanent tenants for more than a decade.

At Monday’s special meeting, conducted virtually because of the pandemic, project traffic consultant Matt Seckler predicted “some significant increased capacity on Madison Avenue” on Saturdays, when the 48,000-square-foot furniture gallery and 164-seat restaurant should be at their busiest.

Seckler based his projections on pre-COVID vehicle counts for Madison Avenue on a Thursday and Saturday, in spring 2019; traffic reports for a similar-sized RH venue in West Palm Beach; and trip-generation standards from a manual of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

At peak times, RH will need 122 parking spaces. Plans call for 180 spaces, Seckler said.

Sixty of those spaces are across Madison Avenue, leased from a medical professionals building.

RH employees will park there on weekends, Seckler said. Customers will park onsite, either in a self-parking lot, or via valets who will shuttle their cars to 56 tandem spaces behind the gallery.

Parking will be studied during the venture’s first six months, to determine if valets need to use the offsite lots to park visitors’ cars, Seckler said.

Responding to a resident’s concerns about traffic on Canfield Road, Seckler said an RH entrance there could be restricted to delivery vehicles, to discourage customer access via Canfield.

‘NO MARGIN FOR ERROR’

Board member George Quillan questioned how fire trucks will shoehorn onto the property.

“There’s no margin for error, no consideration for snow or anything being in the way,”  he said.

Safety is paramount, Vitolo said.  “I’m sure we can work something out here,” the lawyer said.

Snow removal concerned Cathy Wilson, a board member who also serves on the Township Committee that approved the redevelopment. Small snowfalls will be cleared to the edges of the site; heavier amounts will be carted away, Seckler told her.

New sidewalks and curbs are planned along Madison and Canfield, and a pair of “furniture gardens” are proposed.

Seventy-four trees will be removed, and 182 will be planted. Some will be mature, standing up to 25 feet tall, testified project engineer Josh Kline.

Special virtual meeting of the Morris Township planning board, to hear site plan application of Restoration Hardware for The Abbey, July 12, 2021. Screenshot by Kevin Coughlin

Portions of the property’s perimeter will be lined with a six-foot-high, dark grey acrylic “sound abatement fence,” sandwiched between eight-foot-high evergreen hedges, Kline said

The redevelopment will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, he noted.

It all adds up to “a really nice improvement to a site we hope will continue for another 200 or 300 years,” Kline said.

Architects are scheduled to testify next month at the board’s regular meeting. Citing hopes for approvals in time for fall construction, Vitolo asked for another special session.

Vacation schedules could hinder that, replied Board Chairman Edward Benoit.  Vitolo’s request will be addressed on Aug. 16, the chairman said.

MORE ABOUT THE ABBEY

Proposed entrances to Restoration Hardware project at The Abbey, July 2021. Screenshot by Kevin Coughlin

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