Park Avenue Duplexes Deemed Consistent with River Edge Master Plan

The River Edge Mayor and Council will soon have to muster a super majority vote to advance a controversial conditional zoning ordinance to allow duplexes on Park Avenue. Late last week, the borough's Planning Board, by a 7-2 vote, agreed that the proposed ordinance is consistent with the Master Plan.

The ordinance would allow a developer to utilize a 22-lot span along the eastern side of Park Avenue to construct the duplexes. Park Avenue is located near the River Edge train station and a few blocks away from the New Milford border.

"There has been a petition made to the council that a super majority vote take place to approve the ordinance when it returns to the governing body," Mayor Sandy Moscaritolo said. The three-way split on the council would require some council members to cross the aisle as Moscaritolo stated he could not participate in the vote. "I think the ordinance is substantially consistent with the Master Plan."

However, while the majority of the board agreed with Moscaritolo, Councilman Ed Mignone,  Board member Eileen Boland and residents of Park Avenue were of a different opinion.

"I don't believe this ordinance fits the Master Plan and that the council should reexamine it and define what can and can not be included," Mignone said. 

Currently there is nothing in the River Edge Master Plan that does not allow for duplexes in town. According to Board Planner Brigette Bogart and Borough Engineer Robert Costa, the Master Plan calls for a mixture of housing in town while placing an increased density around the train stations.

"When I looked at the area and the zoning districts, there were three significant facts," Board Planner Brigette Bogart said. "The surrounding development pattern on Park Avenue is for the R1 zone while the commercial zone fronts onto Kinderkamack Road. In between that you have residential with multi-family and the public zone in the rear. The area backs up to the railroad tracks so there would be less of an impact on the surrounding community."

According to the ordinance the buildings would have a maximum height of 30 feet from the ground to the roofline, be limited to two and a half stories and the garage would count as a single story. The duplexes could only be located on a property of approximately 7,500 square feet with a lot width of 70 feet and lot depth of 100 feet. 

Additional, any construction would include a 16-foot driveway for each half of a duplex, a 30-foot front yard, 20-foot rear yard and a 10-foot side yard on each side.

"Some of these lots are smaller than the proposal so someone could buy three or four of them, ask to merge them and then build," Park Avenue resident Jim Miller said. "It's been done before on Gates Avenue to add more housing. Why not allow this on all of the streets if this is so good for the town. It doesn't match the neighborhood."

James Anastos, who lives across the street from where  the proposed duplexes would go, stated that he would be looking at them from his bedroom window each day.

"I don't see why we need change," Anastos said. "If you want to make the neighborhood look good, this is not the way to do it."

Developer Joseph Caleca was initially approved to construct a pair of five-bedroom single-family homes on Park Avenue but following the borough's 2012 reassessment found himself facing the prospect of building houses that he would be unable to sell afterwards. The recent assessment for two newly constructed five-bedroom single family homes on Park Avenue, priced at $650,000 would come in hand with a $20,000 tax bill. He proposed utilizing the 7500-square-foot property, comprised of two lots, to feature a pair of two-and-a-half story duplexes with each side of the duplex including a one car garages.

The ordinance, which would affect the eastern side of Park Avenue from Gates Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, was abandoned at the end of 2012 to allow residents more time to review the proposal.

Other Park Avenue residents cited concerns over changes to their neighborhood and the potential for increased traffic on the side streets and more children in the school district. Some were also worried that if the duplexes could not sell in the current market, they would then be converted in to rental housing.

The duplex ordinance which will return to the Mayor and Council in April will include the following revisisions: bulk requirement remains at 30 feet, the duplex would be increased from 2.5-stories to 3-stories high, and include Bogart's report on the consistency with the Master Plan.

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