The pace of development has become so relentless in Morristown that approving or denying applications no longer is the hardest job for town boards.
It’s scheduling all the hearings.
“Your members might be getting frayed,” planning board Engineer Charles Carley cautioned board Chairman Joe Stanley near 11 pm on Tuesday, as Stanley attempted to schedule a sixth meeting for South Street Morristown Holdings LLC.
Stanley’s unpaid volunteers, who all work day jobs, had just heard almost four hours of virtual testimony from the developers, who want to shoehorn 39 apartments and some retail onto about an acre next to the Vail Mansion at 126-136 South Street.
The chairman acknowledged seeing lots of “glazed-over faces” on his computer screen, along with signs of hand- and shoulder fatigue from the developers’ stenographer.
So far this year, the planning board has met 21 times. Eight of those sessions, including Tuesday’s, have been “special” meetings, added to the regular calendar.
Extra meetings can be burdensome for board members, especially those raising kids. Only five of 11 members–barely a quorum–were able to attend on Tuesday.
Morristown’s zoning board has met 15 times, including at least two special meetings. The town council has met 23 times.
Animation showing revisions, narrated by architect Robert Cogan, Sept. 21, 2021. Video capture by Kevin Coughlin for MorristownGreen.com:
Mayor Tim Dougherty and town council President Stefan Armington do double duty: They serve on the planning board, and attend council meetings.
At least they get stipends–about $27,000 for the mayor, and $11,000 for the council president. Virtual sessions, in place since the pandemic struck in March 2020, make things a little easier, Armington said.
But the town aims to return to in-person meetings on Oct. 1, 2021. Stanley is not inclined to do so; he said some members of his board and the zoning board are hesitant, for health reasons, to go back to the council chambers, which are cramped and poorly ventilated.
Armington said he favors keeping council meetings virtual, too, for as long as statewide COVID-19 transmission rates are above 1.0.
The town is researching the legalities of further extensions, Dougherty said. Town Administrator Jillian Barrick did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
As Tuesday’s hearing finally was winding down, Stanley suggested calling another special meeting to bring the South Street Holdings application to a vote.
The mayor spoke up. While everyone wants to move the application to its conclusion, he said, board members have expressed concerns to him about the heavy workload.
“When they get put on a planning board, it isn’t to do special meeting after special meeting after special meeting. So there’s an issue with having too many special meetings,” Dougherty said.
There might be fewer meetings if the board did not allow developers to modify and re-submit their plans as they glean feedback at meetings, Armington said.
“It seems over the top in terms of accommodating developers,” he said on Wednesday.
Project Attorney Frank Vitolo and his team are “continually listening” to the board’s recommendations and incorporating them, he told members on Tuesday.
Stanley thinks that’s how it should be.
“We try to be accommodating to those who want to invest in the town in a responsible way,” the board chairman said.
“If that requires special meetings so that we, as a board, can properly vet them, to make sure that they bring a positive impact, I’m all for it. No member has complained to me, which demonstrates their commitment to Morristown.
“We are all volunteers and could easily walk away, if we weren’t convinced that we were doing the right thing to the place we live,” Stanley said.
STEPBACKS, SIDEWALKS AND HERRINGBONE BRICK
Modifications presented on Tuesday–the project’s fifth hearing since January– included a herringbone brick design in a courtyard and a 15-foot terraced “stepback” on the fourth floor. The stepback is meant to “de-emphasize” the building’s size when viewed from South Street, said project architect Robert Cogan.
The developers also showed a 3-D animation of the latest changes, and informed the board of a driveway easement negotiated with the South Street Creamery.
For awhile it looked like the project might come to a vote. But Dougherty wanted more detailed plans about onsite traffic.
Questions also were raised about loading zones — there are none onsite–and about whether an under-sized sidewalk would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
And it turns out these luxury apartments, pitched for affluent empty-nesters, won’t have guest parking.
Overnight visitors would have to find parking elsewhere, admitted traffic consultant Doug Polyniak during grilling by the mayor and a lawyer for an objector.
Under further questioning, Polyniak also said state transportation officials have not confirmed if they will accept a gift essential for the project.
A quirk of the town’s zoning offers a 10-unit “density bonus” to developers who build on less than one acre. This development group wants to donate slivers of its front lawn to the state, to come below one acre and qualify for the extra apartments. The developers previously offered these parcels to the town for “pocket parks.”
It’s an odd maneuver, in a project with a curious web of connections.
Vitolo and town planning consultant Phil Abramson are on opposite sides here. But they were on the same team Monday in Morris Township, where they won approval for RH (Restoration Hardware) to redevelop a Gilded Age mansion.
Attorney Tom Jardim, hired by a Vail Mansion resident to thwart the South Street apartments, also serves on the board of the Mayo Performing Arts Center–which presumably would benefit from the project if it brings new patrons.
Co-developer Finn Wentworth, meanwhile, opposes a nearby development that might affect his neighborhood’s historic character…while he presses ahead with apartments that will harm the character of South Street, according to the Morristown Historic Preservation Commission.
The next hearing date should be announced Thursday…at planning board meeting number 22.
Yes, JT, the town has design guidelines. This proposal is in the special improvement district so the design guidelines apply. Board members are allowed to ask the applicant and his experts if they have consulted the design guidelines and ask how the proposal fits the guidelines. If you look online, you could read the design guidelines yourself.
Please note that Kevin correctly identified this project as under review of the Planning Board, which is an independent board from the Zoning Board. There’s obviously some similarities between the boards but that are independent of each other.
Does the zoning board really need to weigh in on the herringbone brick pattern in the court yard? Is there not a set of comprehensive zoning requirements that address items such as the 4th floor stepback? That seems like a pretty big item to be coming up at this stage of the process. Based on this story and others, it appears that the zoning board approval process relies heavily on the personal aesthetic preferences of the board members as opposed to whether a project meets/fails a set of existing detailed requirements. Maybe its intended to work that way, but it seems very inefficient and time consuming.