Morris Township gets state blessing for sidewalk in historic Normandy Heights

'Shadowlawn,' a Colonial Revival mansion, circa 1916, on Normandy Parkway in Morris Township. Courtesy of MorrisTwp.com
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Reversing an advisory panel decision, the state Department of Environmental Protection has approved Morris Township’s plans for a sidewalk in the Normandy Heights Historic District.

Construction of a tinted sidewalk on the north side of Normandy Parkway should start next spring, Mayor Mark Gyorfy said on Friday.

Residents along the Parkway banded together as “Preserve Historic Normandy” and hired a lawyer to oppose the project, which they have labeled unnecessary. Siding unanimously with the neighbors, the state Historic Sites Council in June requested more details from the Township and recommended the DEP temporarily nix the proposal.

Township officials supplied the requested information over the summer, satisfying the DEP.

The sidewalk “will improve pedestrian safety and reduce vehicular speeds through lane narrowing… (and) will also improve accessibility to the Morris Museum, Morris County Traction Line Recreation Trail, and the Normandy Park School,” Elizabeth Dragon,
DEP assistant commissioner of community investment and economic revitalization, said in a letter on Sept. 15, 2022.

“Morris Township is making good on its promise to prepare our community for the demands of the future,” Gyorfy told Morristown Green. “With the backing of the state, we will now be utilizing over a quarter of a million dollars in state funding to make Normandy Parkway safer for pedestrians and motorists alike.”

The Township has secured a $339,000 state grant for roadway improvements, according to the mayor. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) approved the initial design.

Dragon’s authorization comes with conditions: The Township must hire an Architectural Historian to document present conditions along Normandy Parkway. Additionally, the municipality must design a sign that highlights the district’s history, and consult with the the local Historic Preservation Commission as necessary.

Roadway resurfacing is part of the project, Gyorfy said in a message to residents.

The Township weighed four options: Doing nothing, constructing sidewalks on both sides of the roadway and adding a bike lane, building a sidewalk only on the southern side, and building on the northern side.

Residents opposed the bike lane, and the Parkway’s southern side posed challenging topography and would have required clearing more vegetation. The chosen alternative satisfies the DOT’s Complete Streets Policy, according to Dragon, and will necessitate removal of only five trees, near the Columbia Road intersection, Gyorfy said.

Homeowners along the Parkway can order trees for planting, for free, the mayor said. He added that project bid specifications, which must go out shortly to meet a November deadly for state funding, will aim to minimize harm to existing trees during sidewalk construction.

Plans call for extending a short Normandy Parkway sidewalk–between Washington Avenue and Kenilworth Road, near the Morristown border and Friendly’s restaurant–along Normandy to Columbia Turnpike.

The Township’s zoning master plan and its transportation advisory committee have called for such a sidewalk for “walkability, interconnectedness, and access to Normandy Park School,” Gyorfy has said.

Normandy Park dates to 1890, when John Dodd Canfield of the Morristown Land and Improvement Company started designing homes for “affluent people who preferred a neighborhood environment to the isolation of a large estate,” according to the Township’s website.

Early residents included movie director Eugene V. Brewster, homeopathic medicine magnate Frederick Humphreys, and suffragist Alison Low Turnbull Hopkins.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Interesting that you commented on “extending” the sidewalk between Washington and Kenilworth rd. That is already in place plus when the township added that section, we were TOLD they were putting in the sidewalk, never asked.
    Dave Cupo
    4 A Normandy Parkway

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