Back on May 22, 2009, former Maplewood Patch Editor Adam Bulger mused that, no matter what was decided for the old police station site on Dunnell Road, there would be no resolution that would satisfy all parties.

Mr. Bulger's comments continue to hold true. The issues that he outlined then continue to play out in the story of this redevelopment process. Township elected leadership says no viable plan for developing the property for a recreational use has been put forward or identified. They say that the Town is not in a position to fund such a development, nor is the local YMCA.

Environmental cleanup and demolition of the building, said Mayor Vic De Luca, have been estimated at approximately $500,000.

The Town leadership says that residential development--whether as condominiums or apartments--is the one way to make much needed money for the Town (with the sale of the property), turn the site into an ongoing commercial ratable and help build more customers for the merchants in Maplewood Village. The Town solicited development proposals for a multi-use residential development this summer and seven developers responded. The Town also contracted a planning firm, The Metro Company LLC, to draft a redevelopment plan for the site designated the property for multi-unit residential development; that plan was delivered to the Town in September and presented to the Township Committee on October 6. 

On October 6, the Township Committee referred the Dunnell Road Redevelopment Plan to the Planning Board for official review and recommendation.

Meanwhile, a number of neighbors to the site and other Town residents have come forward to oppose the plan on multiple grounds: the proposed redevelopment plan allows for too much density; the development would change the character of the area, destroy the historic fabric of the park and surrounding building, and possibly put undue burden on the school district and Town services.

Two residents of Maplewood Avenue hired local planning consulting Peter Steck to analyze the redevelopment plan. In an October 8 memorandum to the Planning Board, Steck contended that the redevelopment plan is inconsistent with the Town's Master Plan. He also said that the area is zoned residential, not business--a claim which members of the governing body say is not true.

Since the Planning Board had not begun to hear public comments by the end of its three-hour meeting on October 13, action on the plan by the Planning Board has been deferred to at least November 10, the date of the next Planning Board meeting.

This past Tuesday, October 20, two members of the public questioned the Township Committee on the proposed redevelopment plan during the public comment portion of the meeting, despite the fact that the ordinance adopting the redevelopment plan had been tabled for the November 16 Township Committee meeting (assuming the Planning Board takes action on the plan during its November 10 meeting).

David Huemer, a former Township Committee member, spoke against adoption of the redevelopment plan ordinance. He asked the Township Committee  to "kill" the ordinance and not act to develop the property in the current market. Huemer used the example of 111 Dunnell Road which he contended could have been the site of a much less expensive new police station if the Township had held that property and not developed it for commercial use. 

Adam Licht wanted to know if a financial analysis of the site had been performed projecting the revenue for the site (the address is 125 Dunnell Road) several years out. Licht asked if there had been an analysis of the site given various scenarios: non-development, development as recreation, development as residential, etc. 

Mayor Vic DeLuca  stated at the meeting and in a follow up email, "We had conversations with each developer about their estimated value of the property and the cost of site preparation and COAH units. We are not making those numbers public because we are still in the negotiation stage and do not want to weaken our position by having the developers know what the other is offering." Again, DeLuca noted that "doing nothing" with the site will cost the Township in environmental remediation costs, asbestos removal and demolition to the tune of $500,000.

DeLuca said that, based upon the calculations performed by Jeremy Otteau regarding the Burnett Avenue residential development, the Town leadership felt confident that the residential redevelopment of Dunnell Road as small apartments or condos would not add significant burden to the Town or school district.

The New York Times hyperlocal news site, The Local, has posted several documents on its site related to the proposed redevelopment, including the development proposal by the YMCA and seven private developers' proposals solicited by the Township in a call for commercial development proposals this past summer. Also resident on The Local is the appraisal of the market value of the property performed by Appraisal Consultants Corp. this past summer. This appraisal only seeks the value of the property at its "highest and best  use" which has been determined to be multi-use residential. The redevelopment plan itself is available on the Township website.

Redevelopment of the Dunnell Road police station site was also the topic of one segment of the Hilton Neighborhood Association's candidates debate which aired on Patch earlier this week.