Letter: Incremental Costs of Waterview Rezoning Must be Acknowledged

To the Editor:

On Aug. 20, the Parsippany Council plans to introduce an ordinance to rezone the 27-acre “Waterview property” located on the corner of Route 46 and Intervale Road. The rezone will permit commercial strip malls, big box retail and high-density residential townhouses to be built on the property. 

Last week we reviewed the many reasons why RD Realty’s estimate of 14 new school children may be off base. At an incremental cost of $14,500 per child, it doesn’t take much of an error to make Waterview a much less attractive project.

Need another reason to be skeptical that our politicians have done their homework? 

A CHSW financial analyst who worked with the town to review the assumptions behind this project was shocked to find zero incremental costs attributed to the proposed development plan for municipal services like police, fire and sewers. 

150,000+ square feet of new commercial retail space and zero incremental costs for municipal services?  Really?  We’re not feeling very confident and neither should you.

Mr. Inglesino states that a fiscal impact study has been completed.  We’d like to see that study before the Parsippany Council rushes to change the law to benefit RD Realty and all the other developers who will come behind to request their own overlays.   

Higher police costs are the #1 thing that municipalities fail to account for properly. 

According to Janice Herlands, of Tischler Bise (a fiscal, economic and planning firm), incremental policing costs are where municipalities make the greatest error when analyzing potential project costs.  You don’t have to go far to find back up for this assertion.  The site http://www.ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/bbtk-factsheet-policecosts.pdf lists no fewer than 24 cities nationwide that saw their police calls for service skyrocket (+33%) after the development of a new big box store, primarily a Walmart.  

A new big box store = More police involvement in shoplifting, credit card fraud and traffic accidents.

According to a 2004 study entitled,  “Crime and Walmart – Is Walmart Safe?” (https://www.ufcw770.org/sites/all/themes/danland/files/CrimeAndWalmart.pdf)

average police incident calls increased +770 a year after a Walmart came to town!  Communities across this country have had to hire more officers, further burden their existing force and/or decrease the level of service offered to the rest of the community to be able to handle this increase.  The same analysis saw an increase of 175 service calls linked to the building of a Target. 

A new convenience store on the corner of Intervale will also require a high police presence.

An article from the LA Times found that convenience stores can be “crime magnets” due to their late hours.  “Because convenience stores are open late at night and because of the areas in which they are located, crimes such as shoplifting loitering and public drunkenness are expected in and near them.”  http://articles.latimes.com/1990-04-06/local/me-686_1_oxnard-convenience-stores.  In the Oxnard study, a typical store resulted in over 80 incremental police service calls a year.

The proposed Waterview development can be expected to result in incremental policing costs of at least $43,000 to $145,000.

Based upon the analysis cited above, the average police service call requires two hours of an officer’s time.  If we use an estimate of a fully loaded (pension + health) hourly wage of $85/hour the cost to handle the new crime generated by a Target and a convenience store will be significant. 

The sharp increase in police hours will result in one of two things:  More overtime or reduced service times for the rest of Parsippany.

Can Parsippany’s force absorb an incremental 510 – 1700 hours without overtime?  It looks like a better estimate is at a higher $110/hour rate producing costs of $56,000 to $187,000.  An equally pressing problem is what this development will do to existing police responsiveness.  Communities across America have seen a decline in their non-emergency police response times when a big box store comes to town.

RD Realty the #1 Walmart developer in the Northeast.

But wait a minute, no one’s talking about building a Walmart right?  Given that there is no site plan, no contracts signed and no definitive tenants – how can you be so sure?  By their own admission, RD Realty is the leader in developing Walmarts. 

Whatever the Big Box – the Parsippany Council must take into consideration additional policing costs associated with this development. 

Given that the increased crime is coming to our neighborhoods, we would like to see the assumptions for policing costs that are built into the Council’s “Fiscal Impact Study”.  If these costs are not correct – it is the Parsippany taxpayer who will make up the difference. 

Rezoning Waterview will clearly be an economic boon for the developer.  But what about the residents of Parsippany? 

There are too many questions that need to be answered before we can rush through a vote on rezoning. 

We need your voice.  Please come to the Parsippany Hills High School, 20 Rita Drive, on August 20 at 7:15pm and demand to see the fiscal impact study.

Citizens for Health, Safety & Welfare

John Beehler, Parsippany

Len Cipkins, Parsippany

Dave Kaplan, Parsippany

Dick Young, Parsippany

Jackie Bay, Mountain Lakes

Nancy du Tertre, Mountain Lakes

Gretchen Fry, Mountain Lakes

Margaret Gossett, Mountain Lakes

Ron Owens, Mountain Lakes