Original article courtesy of The Westfield Leader:
Fanwood Residents Plan Legal Action Against South Ave Development
FANWOOD — A group of Fanwood residents concerned with overdevelopment are banding together in hopes of securing the necessary legal funds to challenge a proposed development at 383 South Avenue.
Despite opposition from neighborhood residents, in June the Planning Board approved an application to develop the property at 383 South Avenue into a 16-unit apartment building.
NB Home Improvements LLC will build a multistory triangular-shaped building at 383 South Avenue, between South Avenue and Old South Avenue, that will contain 16 apartments with 24 parking spaces underneath the building. The property, which is slightly less than a half-acre in size, formerly housed The Chippery Restaurant for many years and, most recently, was the site of the Nostimo Mediterranean Greek restaurant.
The plan is for two floors of apartments— one one-bedroom, six twobedroom and one three-bedroom on each floor. Three of the units will be designated as affordable to help the Borough comply with its affordablehousing mandates. Last October, the State Department of Community Affairs released new affordable housing goals for the next decade, and Fanwood’s number is 109.
The 16 units represent a reduction from the 28 units proposed in the original application. A ground-level garage will be accessible from Old South Avenue and will include a bicycle storage area at the western end, with trash being collected from Old South Avenue, which, along with nearby Locust Avenue, is a neighborhood of single-family residences.
The Board’s 8 to 1 approval on June 18 came after two public hearings totaling about seven hours during which residents aired their numerous concerns about the project, including traffic safety, noise, privacy, lighting, the building’s setbacks from the street and trash removal. Parking was another concern, with neighborhood residents saying that the 24 on-site parking spaces won’t be adequate and will result in cars parking on neighborhood streets.
“We feel that the governing body is not representing the needs of the community at this time,” resident Carolyn Brink told The Leader last week.
Ms. Brink, along with fellow Fanwood resident Gary Morris, colaunched a Facebook group called Fanwood Residents Against Overdevelopment earlier this year.
“We believe that overdevelopment in our small, one-square-mile town has occurred as a result of poor government leadership and a lack of foresight, stemming from a failure to investigate all alternatives related to affordable housing mandates,” the group’s administrators wrote. “We feel strongly our local government has abandoned the homeowners of Fanwood and are now fully supporting developers who are infringing upon our residential streets and buffer zones.”
The group alleges via its social media site that the Borough’s Mayor and Council have failed to provide adequate documentation surrounding the South Avenue project and suggests that other state-mandated transparency laws have been violated throughout the process.
“There have been so many missteps here,” Mr. Morris told The Leader, adding that residents were only made aware of the developer’s plans for the site nine days before the project was first introduced, “The Mayor and the Council knew about this back in January, but it really feels like they wanted to keep things quiet. I want to be clear – I’m not antidevelopment, but it needs to be done the right way.”
Mr. Morris, who lives across the street from the proposed building, said Tuesday that he plans to retain legal counsel on behalf of the residents who will be impacted by the project within the coming week. He listed zoning conflicts, accessibility, parking and challenging traffic patterns among his chief concerns for the site.
“We feel that a lot of this is being done improperly, and we think that it is important to get another set of eyes on this thing before it’s too late,” Mr. Morris said.
Last week, Ms. Brink launched a GoFundMe campaign hoping to raise $12,000 to support Mr. Morris’s upcoming legal challenges.
“The best way to support the future of our small town and its character, as well as preserve our single-family home residential streets, is to fight back with some meaningful legal pushback that moves the ball for our entire community in achieving better, more resident-friendly development regulations for Fanwood. Our legal advisors strongly believe that the Fanwood Planning Board has created serious zoning and residential concerns by approving the 383 SouthAvenue application,” she said via the crowdsourcing site.
As of the date of publication, the site had raised $8,671 (note, now $9400 since this story was written).
“We have never felt the need to oppose one of these projects before, but we are at capacity,” Ms. Brink said, “We don’t have a choice.”
Requests for comment from Borough Officials were not returned at the time of publication.
Help your neighbors fight back. Please consider donating to the Fight For Fanwood campaign on GoFundMe to support the legal battle to overturn the approval of 383 South Ave. Help ensure that our rights as residents are upheld, our voices are heard, and future residential developments are bound to the law and reasonable restrictions in our community.
You can contribute anonymously, and no donation is too small. Thank you!