New Cory Road proposal gets tepid reviews at Morristown planning board

The last proposal to develop 9 Cory Road in Morristown did not turn out as the developer hoped. After 19 months of plans, reports, revisions and opposition from neighbors, the application quietly was withdrawn.

That was 2023. If Thursday’s planning board meeting is any indication, the new suitor also may be in for a bumpy ride.

A big crowd packed the session to hear architect Christopher Farnum testify on behalf of Claremont Acquisitions LLC, the contract buyer, with plans for 90 stacked townhomes on 6.3 wooded, sloping acres off Martin Luther King Avenue, bordering Morris Township.

First impressions from the neighboring condo development behind the treeline across the border were not favorable.

Linda Lane said one of the selling points for herself and other purchasers of those $800,000 to $1.1 million homes on the former Colgate-Palmolive site — condos built by the last applicant at Cory Road — was a lifestyle that included unspoiled, wooded backyards.

She said it was “shocking” how similar the new architectural sketches look to the prior ones

“This does not look like Morristown. It looks like public housing,” Lane said.

The present site plan application calls for six buildings of stacked, three-level townhomes. Three buildings each will contain 17 units, three will have 13 units apiece.

Eighteen units will be designated as affordable. All units will be for sale, not leased.

Half of the 72 market-rate townhomes will have two bedrooms, the other half will have three bedrooms. Three of the affordables will be one bedroom, nine will have two bedrooms, and six will offer three bedrooms.

As currently envisioned, all the market-rate units will have garages. The affordables will not. Five of the six buildings will have patios. A retaining wall is planned, and so are sidewalks for the private road.

The applicant is requesting approximately 20 variances and waivers. That seemed reasonable to project attorney Larry Calli. “I’ve seen some projects that need 20 variances for signage,” he responded to an audience member.

Farnum, the architect, touted sidings of brick and board-and-batten, intended to create an elegant, textured appearance of “beautiful shadows as the sun rakes across the façade.”

Buildings will be staggered across from each other so each “will feel quite distinct,” Farnum added.

Board members and professionals posed questions about parking, trash and bike storage, vinyl windows, and patio privacy. Town Planner Phil Abramson suggested garage awnings.

Board Chairman Joe Stanley assured audience members they will have time to weigh in after the applicant concludes its case. Civil- and traffic engineers and a planner are anticipated to testify for Claremont. Another hearing is scheduled for next month.

DIVINE INSPIRATION?

The prior applicant, JMF/RD Morristown LLC of Whippany, also pitched 90 units — a mix of townhomes and affordable apartments — but scaled that back to 60 units before withdrawing amid public concerns about density, traffic, topography and potential pollution of the Whippany River.

JMF/RD, whose principals were Rick Birdoff and Giuseppi Forgione, built the neighboring 143 townhomes and 60 rental units, along with the 150,000 square-foot strip mall fronting East Hanover Avenue, in Morris Township.

Public records show that within weeks of scuttling its Cory Road plans, JMF/RD in January 2024 sold that property — assessed at a value of $3.3 million — for $1 to the Union Baptist Church of Morristown, a small congregation on Spring Street.

Union Baptist Senior Pastor Lance Mann sat near the Claremont team at Thursday’s meeting. Morristown Green has reached out to him and JMF Properties for comment.

Claremont Acquisitions LLC — under contract to buy the Cory Road property from the church if the project is approved by the town — is affiliated with Claremont Development.

Based on Mount Kemble Avenue in Morristown, and led by partners Richard Sciaretta and Jeff Bastow, Claremont lists northern New Jersey projects including luxury apartments, senior living centers, warehouses, storage centers, and dorms at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City on its website. Established in 2019, Claremont Development evolved from the Claremont Construction Group, which started in 1954, the website states.

IN OTHER BUSINESS…

With minimal discussion, the board unanimously approved measures relating to another big housing project bordering Morris Township. It also approved hiring consultants to help navigate the proposed expansion of Morristown Medical Center. And it heard a brief presentation from the Morris School District about its $158 million capital improvement plans, approved by voters in a bond referendum last week.

MOUNT KEMBLE REDEVELOPMENT GETS BOARD BLESSINGS

Deferring to reviews by Abramson, the town planner, the board determined that a pair of amendments to the town’s zoning codes — converting a Hospital District on Mount Kemble Avenue to a new Affordable Housing Zone, and updating the codes to reflect the town’s Round Four affordable housing obligations under the state Fair Housing Act — don’t clash with Morristown’s master plan.

These rulings free the town council to codify the amendments, paving the way for redevelopment of the former Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute on Mount Kemble, bordering the Township.

Seventy-nine housing units, including 17 affordable units, are proposed for Morristown’s side of the recently demolished rehab site. Across the street, in Atlantic’s former parking lot, up to 21 stacked townhomes, including three affordables, are planned.

Morristown had opposed building on the rehab site, citing steep slopes and traffic concerns. But Russo Acquisitions LLC of Carlstadt and the Fair Share Housing Center of Cherry Hill sued the town. This redevelopment will settle that litigation.

The Township, meanwhile, has authorized 139 units, 23 of them affordable, on its side of the Mount Kemble boundary.

CONSULTANTS AND SWIMMING POOLS

Morristown still awaits a formal application from Atlantic Health for a major expansion of Morristown Medical Center. To prepare, the board approved retaining the Neglia Group (traffic engineering) and Boswell Engineering (civil/municipal engineering) as consultants.

Resident Mike Kurek, concerned that the expansion will increase helicopter noise to the hospital trauma center, was assured that Boswell will bring a subcontractor with expertise in flight patterns and noise abatement.

Thursday’s meeting kicked off with a few words from Morris School District officials.

They said expansion of the Morristown High School cafeteria probably won’t start until 2029, after the swimming pool is rebuilt. The cafeteria will remain operational throughout; the pool will not. New bathrooms at the high school athletic field will be open only during sporting events.

The presentation was made as a courtesy; the board has no jurisdiction over the district, which also serves Morris Township and (for high school) Morris Plains.