Opponents Seek to Shut Down Waterview Development Meeting

A local opposition group, made up of Parsippany and Mountain Lakes residents, will try to prevent the Township Council from acting on the controversial Waterview development by flooding any hearings on the matter.

“We are going to try to overflow the building and shut down the meeting,” said member Bernie Earls.

The Citizens for Health, Safety and Welfare set up in front of Parsippany Hills High School on Tuesday despite the Waterview ordinance being pulled from that night's council agenda.

The drafting of the ordinance had not yet been finished at the time of the meeting and was not ready for introduction, according to Parsippany-Troy Hills Municipal Clerk Yancy Wazirmas.

The revised ordinance, once up for first reading, would permit rezoning of a tract of land in the Waterview complex. Waterview Development is a proposal in which a developer is seeking to build a Whole Foods Market and townhouse community on 26.6 acres of Parsippany's Waterview tract.

The Citizens for Health, Safety and Welfare were selling t-shirts saying “Preserve the water, keep the 'view' in Waterview” to raise awareness of their issue.

The group has been distributing fliers telling residents to come out to oppose the project.

The group managed to shut down a Planning Board meeting in January by exceeding the maximum capacity of the building. In response, the council moved several meetings from town hall to the Parsippany Hills High School Auditorium.

The group expects about 600 of their members to attend, once Waterview is back on the agenda, but would fall short by about half of shutting the meeting down.

According to PHHS Assistant Principal Michael DiSanto, the auditorium holds approximately 1,200 people.

Although the council has not yet announced the date when the ordinance will be introduced, they did announce that the August 6 and August 20 meetings will be held at Parsippany Hills High School.