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6/30/2014 Montclair Works to Map Future - WSJ http://online.wsj.com/articles/montclair-works-to-map-future-1403837318?KEYWORDS=kaya+laterman 1/4 Live Help WSJ WSJ LIVE MARKETWATCH BARRON'S PORTFOLIO DJX MORE NEW YORK NY REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL Montclair Works to Map Future New Jersey Township Faces Residents' Opposition to New Master Plan Updated June 30, 2014 11:39 a.m. ET Montclair Township is known for its schools, vibrant cultural scene and easy access into Manhattan. Still, the New Jersey community is grappling with what many of the state's historic towns are facing—revitalizing itself without destroying its charm. The dilemma isn't just theoretical for Montclair's roughly 38,000 residents. The Essex County community has a proposed comprehensive landuse plan that its chief planning official thinks could be approved in the fall. "Change is hard," said Janice Talley, Montclair's director of planning and community development. "But we got the conversation going, we have listened and engaged the community, and I believe we'll get a plan passed." If approved by the township planning board, the blueprint for growth would be the first for Montclair in more than 30 years. Residents have been protective, contesting every master redevelopment plan drafted over the last several years, Ms. Talley said. Montclair is drafting a landuse master plan for the first time in decades. It also has landed new developments recently. Above, a rendering of a $100 million mixeduse complex called Valley& Bloom. Lessard Design Inc. What's This? Popular Now ARTICLES VIDEO How to Convert a Soccer Hater 1 Furor Erupts Over Facebook Experiment 2 The Distraction Industrial Complex 3 Yellen's Security Detail Irks Neighbors 4 Supreme Court Makes Religious Exception to Health Law 5 How Diet Soda Can Ruin Your Diet 1 ISIS Releases New Videos, Claims Own 2 By KAYA LATERMAN Email Print 0 Comments Kees's Journal c r News, Quotes, Companies, Videos SEARCH
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Montclair Works to Map FutureNew Jersey Township Faces Residents' Opposition to New Master Plan
Updated June 30, 2014 11:39 a.m. ET
Montclair Township is known for its schools, vibrant cultural scene and easy access intoManhattan. Still, the New Jersey community is grappling with what many of the state'shistoric towns are facing—revitalizing itself without destroying its charm.
The dilemma isn't just theoretical for Montclair's roughly 38,000 residents.
The Essex County community has a proposed comprehensive landuse plan that itschief planning official thinks could be approved in the fall.
"Change is hard," said Janice Talley, Montclair's director of planning and communitydevelopment. "But we got the conversation going, we have listened and engaged thecommunity, and I believe we'll get a plan passed."
If approved by the township planning board, the blueprint for growth would be the first forMontclair in more than 30 years. Residents have been protective, contesting everymaster redevelopment plan drafted over the last several years, Ms. Talley said.
Montclair is drafting a landuse master plan for the first time in decades. It also has landed newdevelopments recently. Above, a rendering of a $100 million mixeduse complex called Valley& Bloom.Lessard Design Inc.
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One evoked so much opposition that Ms. Talley recalls listening to more than 15 hours ofpublic testimony.
The latest proposal, the Montclair Township Unified Land Use and Circulation Plan,includes a range of items: zoning changes, more residential and office complexes, betterparking, bikerfriendly roadways and shuttle buses between train stations to commercialareas such as Bloomfield Avenue.
Like the others, though, this master redevelopment plan has its critics. They say theprojected growth—as many as 600 new multifamily housing units, 220,000 square feet ofcommercial space and 500 new jobs—would strain Montclair's finances as well asdisturb its quaint, treelined neighborhoods and make the commercial areas toocorporate.
For Ms. Talley, the new jobs would benefit the shops and restaurants along BloomfieldAvenue, the township's main commercial corridor—especially during the slow, weekdayhours.
Development near the northwestern portion of Bloomfield Avenue has already started.The corner of Orange Road and Bloomfield Avenue will soon house the township's firstfullservice hotel since 1938. Right now, Montclair has only a bedandbreakfast.
The township's new hotel is named theMC, part of Marriott International'sAutograph Collection. With a price tag of$35 million, the eightstory tower will havea rooftop bar, a farmtotable restaurantand an outdoor plaza connected to anatrium with 30foot glass walls.
With seven NJ Transit train stations,Montclair already relies heavily on publictransportation and is pushing residents todrive even less in its new masterredevelopment plan.
"Progressive towns like Montclair aretrying to evolve and adopt a 'carlight'lifestyle," said Brian Stolar, president andchief executive of Pinnacle Cos., which isdeveloping the hotel. "We're at a pointwhere many people, especially themillennials, don't want to get into their carsto go get a cup of coffee."
A rendering of the MC hotel. BOGZA and Lessard Design Inc.
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Pinnacle also is a partner with developer LCOR in Valley & Bloom, a $100 million mixeduse project next to the hotel that will have 258 residential units and about 50,000 squarefeet of office and retail space. Pinnacle built the Siena, another mixeduse project, a fewyears ago on South Park Street.
Both the MC and Valley & Bloom should be completed in about two years.
Montclair is also looking to readapt some old buildings on the other three corners ofValley Road and Bloomfield Avenue, according to Ms. Talley.
"We hope to see many of the creative class in Montclair, like those in the tech,advertising, media and architecture business, open offices in this vibrant area wherethey can work and live," said James Driscoll, LCOR's senior vice president ofdevelopment.
Luther Flurry, the executive director of the Montclair Center Business ImprovementDistrict, said he would like to see stronger preservation guidelines and building standardsso that the township has a balance between old and new.
Mr. Flurry ultimately envisions Bloomfield Avenue as a pedestrianfriendly commercialcorridor running between the Montclair Art Museum near the township's western borderwith Verona to NJ Transit's Bay Street train station near the Glen Ridge border.
"I think the town can handle diverse development," said Mr. Flurry. "Bloomfield Avenuewill not turn into a generic mall. The nature of this creative town is to have a mix of smallentrepreneurs and some larger merchants that can pull customers into one another."
Bloomfield Avenue in downtown Montclair, N.J. Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal
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