Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Talk to us: Patch wants to hear your take on the issues of the day.
- OPINION
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Wednesday, May 15
You may be thinking, "Hey, Parsippany is a big town! I don't care if 26.6 acres of woods are knocked down to put in a Whole Foods, a big box retailer, 65 three-story townhouses, a strip mall and 1,100 parking spaces. After all, the area known as Waterview, where Route 46 meets Intervale Road, is several miles from my house." Well, maybe you do mind: Are you concerned about overcrowding in our schools? The children from these townhouses won't all neccessarily go to Intervale School. They will be farmed out to all Parsippany schools to average out class sizes, which are already maxed out. These large class sizes are with recent additions to several of our schools. So don't plan on seeing more additions being built anytime soon. Property …
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The group, formerly known as Don't Rezone Waterview, is raising funds for its fight against the development project that include Whole Foods Market and a townhome community.
Residents standing in opposition to the proposed plan for RD Realty to erect a mixed-use retail and residential complex on 26.6 acres of the Waterview tract are taking the next step in their fight. In order to cover the cost of lawyers and experts to argue its case before the Township Council, nonprofit grassroots group Citizens for Health, Safety and Welfare will hold a fundraiser April 28. The group, formerly known as Don't Rezone Waterview, is inviting community members to take part in its “Jump in the Lake!” event on Sunday, April 28, from noon-4 p.m. The fundraiser will take place at Island Beach, on the Boulevard in Mountain Lakes. According to a group statement, the event offers a number of ways for residents to participate. People…
Sunday, March 24, 2013
What do you think?
The following is an open letter to Parsippany's Township Council from David Kaplan, president of a nonprofit citizens group standing in opposition to developer RD Realty's plan to construct a retail and residential complex including Whole Foods Market, a big-box retailer and a 60-unit townhouse community on 26.6 now-undeveloped acres on Waterview Plaza. On behalf of Citizens For Health, Safety, and Welfare, I am writing to let you know that we believe the Town Council did the right thing by tabling the draft overlay rezoning ordinance. You recognized the need to further investigate all of the available options in order to ensure that [any development gives] true benefits to the residents. We appreciate that you didn’t rush to judgment, …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
We want to know your opinions on issues of the day.
- OPINION
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Wednesday, March 20
It was obvious at Tuesday's Town Council meeting that Town Attorney John Inglesino didn't know what he was saying concerning Highlands Council conformance and how "that block lot" could have fit into the Highlands' Master Plan. In addition, the council members appeared to be going along with developer RD Realty, which wants to rezone Waterview. Don't think for one minute that these guys or the Planning Board took any effort to diminish the developer's exceeding demands. Inglesino also seemed more worried about saving the town from "fantasy" lawsuits. Who would sue the town for not allowing residents three minutes to speak before the council because the attorney for Don't Rezone Waterview [now known as Citizens for Health, Safety and …
A letter from developer RD Realty's attorney saying that if the Whole Foods plan dies, a more controversial project could replace it angers residents and officials alike.
Spirited opposition to a plan to develop 26.6 acres of the Waterview tract for a retail-residential project erupted at Parsippany Hills High School Tuesday night as the Parsipany Township Council met for its monthly business meeting. A Wateview-themed ordinance proposal expected to be introduced was discussed at length and passionately, but at the end of a four-hour-plus meeting, the body voted 5-0 to table its introduction. The council is considering whether to go forward with a plan recommended by the Planning Board to turn the undeveloped Waterview acreage, currently zoned for planned office development, into an overlay zone that would allow mixed-use development. Residents oppose the project as currently proposed in a plan that calls …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
What are your thoughts on issues of the day. Let Patch know.
It's amazing how "some people" can ignore and purposely undermine legislation and guidelines developed with public funds that help us develop a sound, healthy future concerning our water supply and landscapes' integrity, landscapes that should have already reached a "post development" phase. [The possibility of] Waterview "re-zoning" this by itself is an audacious act by corporate forces to plainly undermine environmental law. The New Jersey Master Development Plan, the Wetlands Protection Act, the New Jersey Highlands Protection Act, Clean Water and Air Acts and subsequent studies concerning Troy Brook Watershed are being ignored by town leaders. Our Parsipanny Planning Board has become part of this axis. Will our Town Council also join …
Monday, March 11, 2013
A special session of the governing body is completed in a flash.
The Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council will take five upcoming meetings on the road, following its vote on a resolution at Town Hall Monday night. At a hastily arranged special meeting, the body convened, held a flag salute, voted on the resolution and adjourned—all in less than 10 minutes. The attached video offers a view of the substance of the meeting, which was about 30 seconds in length. The Patch clip shows the point of the gathering: The council voted to hold its March 19 business meeting at Parsippany Hills High School and its April 9, April 16, May 7 and May 14 sessions at Parsippany High School. All will begin at the regular 7:30 p.m. start time, according to the clerk's office. The purpose of the venue change is to avoid …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The group, now a nonprofit called Citizens for Health, Safety and Welfare, is targeting Council to stop development proposal.
There's a new name and an expanded fight for the citizen's group opposed to the proposed plan to put a mixed-use development on Waterview Plaza including a Whole Foods Market, a big box retailer and a townhome community. Don't Rezone Waterview is now known as Citizens for Health, Safety and Welfare. President David Kaplan said the onetime grassroots effort involving citizens of Parsippany and Mountain Lakes is gearing up for a renewed fight now that the Planning Board passed the issue along to the Township Council for consideration. "We went from Don't Rezone Watervew, which was a grassroots, loosely organized effort to a more formal organization," he said, adding that the group is amassing firepower to allow them to stand toe to toe with …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tell us what you are thinking.
- OPINION
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Tuesday, February 26
I write still displeased with the Waterview rezoning proposal recently recommended by the Parsippany Planning Board to the Township Council. In order for the developer's unwanted and unneeded project to progress, the Parsipanny Planning Board would erase a standing line of landscape adjustment and kill a protection established for environmental reasons such as aquifers and proper buffer zones between established communities and corporate properties. These lines of zoning and ordinances cannot be simply erased to accommodate some interest from outside the place of living residential populace; our community and its remaining diverse or natural open spaces. All things have limits. Parsipanny has reached its saturation for large-scale …
Friday, February 22, 2013
What do you think? Shoot Patch a Letter to the Editor.
- OPINION
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Friday, February 22
In the upcoming municipal election, there is one issue that is not political: Waterview rezoning. This is an American landscape issue which involves not only quality of life in Parsippany but biodiversity of life. and most of all, clean and safe water. If you investigate, you will see Parsippany has problems with its aquifers and water supplies, much of it coming from overdevelopment. This information can be found in the Highlands Coalition and Rutgers University Water Resource Studies. Mayor James Barberio and the Planning Board, when allowing developer RD Realty to go forward with the outrageous proposal [to build a retail/residential complex consisting of Whole Foods Market, a big box retailer and a townhouse community], have alienated…
Kevin Brancato
9:25 am on Thursday, May 23, 2013
My apologies again my comment are reall directed towards statement made by the author of this letter Paula Mondschein although they still apply to all that think not changing the zoning is benificial to the town as a whole, We will all pay for the low income housing for a very long time.You need to start looking past your own short sited self interests. more ›